


You plus Me plus He equals Three

by NevaRYadL



Category: Mortal Kombat (Video Games), Mortal Kombat - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, I guess???, Johnny Cage: Bisexual Disaster, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Mentioned Trans Cassie Cage, Mutual Pining, Rating May Change, Saibot is their own character (and nonbinary because I say so), Slow Burn, Sort of I guess????, Trans Bi-Han, Trans Hanzo Hasashi, Trans Johnny Cage, Trans Noob Saibot, Trans Scorpion, yOu CaNt MaKe EvErYoNe TrAnS aNd Nb-- Fucking watch me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2019-10-19 15:23:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 46,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17603882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NevaRYadL/pseuds/NevaRYadL
Summary: Shinnok is defeated. The world is at as about as peaceful as it will ever be. Everything is fine. Seriously.Why can't Johnny sleep at night then?





	1. U+Me+He=3

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Mirror Match](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17303999) by [judgmentfist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/judgmentfist/pseuds/judgmentfist). 



> Hello one and all! I'm back from one-shot hell to attempt another long fic that my amazing and perfect co-writer inspired!
> 
> Some quick notes!
> 
> 1) Transpires after the events of mk10  
> 2) Hella LGBT hcs, not your cup of tea? s.o.l  
> 3) I explore Johnny's character so that means that there will be mentions of possible conditions that I think he has such as depression, PTSD, etc etc. Each chapter that it's brought up will have warnings but please be wary  
> 4) Very inspired by the amazing fic Mirror Match and general amazing works of Judgementfist whom I highly recommend you check out and follow. No seriously they're amazing go do it.

“Ice cube!” Johnny yelled across the Lin Kuei courtyard.

Kuai Liang actually snorted with laughter at the nickname, rolling his eyes at Johnny as he strode up to the him. The cryomancer crossed those triple grade A beef arms across his just as grade A beef chest and smirked sideways at Johnny as he stepped up to the man and lovingly popped the man’s shoulder.

“How’s my favorite snowman?”

“I am doing well,” Kuai Liang chuckled before popping him back. Johnny brushed the ice off his sleeve. “And you, Mr. Cage?”

“How many times do I gotta tell you, ice-man? Call me Johnny.”

“One more time, Mr. Cage.”

Johnny rolled his eyes at the man before surveying the currently training Lin Kuei students. Most of them wore the trademark Sub-Zero outfit, that black ninja gear with the range of blue accents. Some wore masks like Kuai Liang did sometimes and some did not. It looked like a few were obviously cryomancers like their grandmaster but a lot looked like ordinary folks. All gifts from Raiden, as the story went. So chances were that even the ordinary looking folks could go toe to toe with the grandmaster.

“Sonya’s got me doing the circuit today, making sure everyone is all good,” Johnny said after finishing his sweep. “No chances, no armageddon in the making. Speaking of which, any changes?”

“No new students, no new discoveries, no changes,” Kuai Liang noted.

“Perfect. We like it boring, remember that,” Johnny laughed.

Kuai Liang smirked.

“Though you’re probably as happy as can be seanshow--” Johnny paused to wrap his arm around Hanzo’s shoulders as he just teleported next to Johnny. Startling the man before he grumbled at realizing that it was just Johnny and his seemingly supernatural sense for catching portals and people coming through them. “--This guy is always here. Hey by the way, fire starter!”

“Cage,” Hanzo grunted, glaring sideways at him but with no heat. No ‘Scorpion furrow’ that Johnny knew too well from the previous tournament. You never quite could forget those kinds of murderous wrinkles.

“Grandmaster Hahashi,” Kuai Liang smiled, giving the man a proper bow.

“Is now a bad time?” Hanzo said, not removing Johnny’s arm.

“Nah, I’m just checking up on everyone. Making sure there isn’t the next apocalypse brewing somewhere,” Johnny said nonchalantly. “You know. No mysterious strangers, no new relics popping up, no fights going on…”

“Making sure that the old Sub-Zero and Scorpion rivalry hasn’t sparked?” Kuai Liang added with a smirk.

“Yep!”

“I assure you, we have been perfectly civil to one another,” Hanzo grunted, folding his arms across his chest. Triple grade A just like Kuai Liang. Also still had not removed Johnny’s arm.

“Just making sure, hot stuff. After all that shit that went down with Shinnok and things finally straightening out, we don’t want to jinx anything. We want things to finally calm down and if that means I gotta annoy Mr. Heatmiser and Mr. Snow every like two weeks, then so be it.”

“... I know that reference,” Kuai Liang added.

Johnny laughed and Hanzo rolled his eyes.

“So if everything is peachy and Hanzo can verify that his students and temples have had zero changes…?”

“Correct,” Hanzo said.

“Then you’re all cleared with Special Forces,” Johnny grinned.

“I insist that you stay for a moment, Mr. Cage. I know that trinket that allows you to teleport between friendly zones takes an hour to charge between uses and quick frankly? Your interactions with your ex-wife are horrifically awkward and I would rather not witness it for her to come gather you,” Kuai Liang said, gesturing to further into the Lin Kuei temple.

“I mean hey if you’ll have me!”

The three man walked further into the courtyard, walking past the students as they trained. They could watch themselves for a moment, according to Kuai Liang. While he loved to supervise and advise, he also told Johnny that his students needed to develop their own personal style that would make fighting the Lin Kuei harder to face as a whole. Also there was hardly a ‘right’ way to do cryomancy. That meant students had some freedom in their training, especially if the grandmaster was busy hosting a guest.

“You know, Vanilla-Ice here has his cryomancers, but do you have pyromancers?”

“Not nearly as many as Grandmaster Kuai Liang,” Hanzo stated simply. Cut and dry but not punishing and short like he was after the tournament. If Johnny was being honest, based on eyewitness reports, Hanzo was becoming almost tolerable in recent years. “I have five at the moment and one that shows promise with fire magic. But as Kuai Liang put it, there is no ‘right’ way for one to use elemental powers such as ours. They prefer to train those powers on their own.”

Johnny nodded. Style was important sometimes. Sometimes style could send opponents looking for neatness and order through a loop. Johnny should know. Fighting trainers have been bitching about his wild and seemingly random brawling style for years before they forced him to take karate and jeet kuno do lessons but that was always for movies. When he was on his own? No bars all raw manic bullshit that Johnny was soo good at. Just no way you can pen that down to script.

 _Can’t cage you,_ the first movie suit had said to him after watching his fighting. Huh, maybe that was where he got ‘Cage’ from.

“Cage?” Hanzo asked, shaking Johnny from his thoughts. The pyromancer had yet to move his arm. Johnny cannot get that out of his head.

“Sorry uh…” For once his wit and silver tongue are not doing anything. For some reason he is plagued by a sort of bone deep tiredness that had been plaguing him in the recent months following the latest apocalypse. “Tired I guess? I don’t know I’ve been funky since the whole end of the world shit.”

“One does not simply come down from kombat,” Kuai Liang piped up before gesturing to where they had been walking too, Johnny too caught up in his own thoughts to really notice. Looked like Kuai Liang’s room. There was a table with a tea set on it and three cushions. Thoughtful man. “Adjusting after leaving it can be… harsh.”

“I guess, but you’d think I’d be happy to be leaving that shit behind,” Johnny chuckled hollowly.

“The warrior’s curse, as a few have called it,” Hanzo said as they sat down. Kuai Liang and Hanzo made their tea while Johnny politely declined it. His diet sucked enough. “It is easier to go back into a familiar place, even if that place is filled with despair, fighting, anger, blood and death for the simple reason that it is familiar. Unfamiliarity can cause us to choose between fighting and… not fighting.”

Sounded about right. Johnny’s therapists over the years had said the same thing, especially when he had gotten out of the first tournament. They said to be mindful that he was not going out trying to enter another or fighting someone to the death or trying to go back to that. Johnny had tided himself with action movies with fight scenes out the ass and teaming up with his wife then ex-wife on the Special Forces. And then shoved that deep infuriating itch in his soul for kombat as far down as he could when life graced him with the greatest thing in the universe; Cassie.

Shit… maybe he needed to go back into therapy. Certainly had the time except for these visits. Turned out, no one wanted to be the fretting mother hen over anyone and Johnny is… close to clawing at his face with boredom these days.

“We lost you again,” Kuai Liang said softly.

“Sorry… doesn’t help that last night the kids came back from a mission in a hurry and instead of letting other people take care of it I pulled my happy ass out of bed to check up on them,” Johnny groaned, rubbing his face. Two hours of sleep felt like shit.

“Are they well?” Hanzo asked.

“Cassie had a black eye and Jin’s got his right arm broke making sure that Cassie did not get a knife to the ribs. Everyone was shaken up pretty badly,” Johnny explained with a tired sigh. “But for a mission blowing up that’s damned acceptable consequences. Cassie’s taking a week off at both mine and Sons insistence and Jin’s gone back the Shaolin temple to deal with his arm. He’ll be back in a month.”

“I will ask Takeda to ask about him in a few days,” Hanzo said as he looked at his tea cup.

“He’s a tough kid, he’ll be okay. Just needs to shake the nerves off and make sure that archery arm of his heals up good and strong,” Johnny hummed.

“You should rest,” Kuai Liang said.

“After the visits. They’re a whole day worth of running around but it’s nice calm work if everything is still boring. When I get home I’ll pass out good and hard.”

“You better, I’ll sic your ex-wife on you otherwise,” Kuai Liang said flatly.

Johnny laughed. Kuai Liang did not. Shit he was serious. And for a moment Johnny felt a sort of… ‘touched’ feeling that this man with all of his own issues was serious about making sure that he of all people was doing well. Huh, he always knew there was a heart of gold in that frozen beefsteak chest, but getting it aimed at him was uh… nice.

“Sure, yeah man,” Johnny muttered, blinking slowly before grumbling as he finally relented and accepted a cup of tea. “Never should have put you two in the groupchat.”

Kuai Liang laughed and Johnny felt his mood lift up a bit as he sipped his warm drink.

“Ah, right I am,” Hanzo said, patting his outfit before pulling out a sleek smartphone (courtesy of the Special Forces) and tapped away on it. Johnny decided to jump on as well.

[Earthrealm Alliance Chat]

Hanzo: @Takeda I was made aware of Kung Jin’s condition, is he well?  
Takeda: Yeah it was just scary is all, he’s more startled by what happened then his arm  
Kuai-Liang: I am glad that he is well.  
Takeda: yeah me too :( he’s getting patched up by his family at the temple  
Johnny: Hey tech-tech, how’s Cass?  
Takeda: She’s good, no hairline fractures or nothing, just a nasty black eye and coming and going headaches  
Takeda: She feels bad for Jin jumping in and saving her  
Johnny: You guys are a team, you’re supposed to saving each other’s asses! It means you’re doing good!!!  
Cassie: Thanks dad :’3  
Johnny: Hey kiddo, you feeling better?  
Cassie: Well that pep talk sure did help  
Cassie: And I mean that  
Cassie: Still feel bad that Jin broke his arm saving me tho  
Johnny: Eh, give him some vacation days so he can go be gay and do crimes  
Cassie: erxdcftgvhbjnkl;

“You are charismatic leader, if nothing else,” Hanzo gruffed out when he put away his phone.

“Hey, my kids need my help and I’ve always been one for ‘the carrot’ over the stick,” Johnny shrugged with a grin.

Hanzo seemed to slip off into his thoughts, staring at his empty cup as he pondered.

“Speaking of stick…” Kuai Liang rose and grinned in what could have only have been pure spite and pettiness. “Shall you ‘surprise’ my students, Mr. Cage?”

“Ooooh, what for?”

Hanzo grunted and suddenly found the far wall more interesting.

“Yeah I can do that,” Johnny grinned just as wickedly.

* * *

Johnny spent the next forty-ish minutes whooping Lin Kuei ass.

Apparently they were not expecting Johnny to come back out into the courtyard, all swagger and bluster, and challenging the most veteran and bad-ass looking Lin Kuei to a fight. Poor lady did not take him seriously and ended up getting kicked across the courtyard and then people realized that he was dead serious and that he had just taken down one of the top students because of pride. 

This lead to a series of fights where Johnny stomped ass because the Lin Kuei were unused to fighting a wild card like Johnny. Unused to someone just doing whatever was best for the situation, wild intuition over skill. And yeah, sure, Johnny could pull out his rusty martial arts training or the karate that had been taught to him over the years, but it was a lot more fun to swing with intent on punching someone’s lights out. And there was just something so fulfilling about fighting skilled opponents.

When the last willing student was kneeling in defeat on the cold, cold ground, Kuai Liang applauded Johnny as he stood there panting and grinning like an uncaged beast.

“Now, my students, I wonder what brought this on?” Kuai Liang smiled bitterly sweet at his students.

Johnny let the hot snowman deal with his students, checking the intricate amulet that was tucked underneath his shirt. The small gem in the middle was once again glowing a soft green color and the three even smaller gems along the edges were a deep maroon. All charged up.

“Hey, I gotta run now. Thanks for keepin’ me and good luck!” Johnny called out over Kuai Liang’s raised voice. The man briefly stopped, turning to give Johnny a proper farewell bow and smile before turning back to ripping his students a new one.

Hanzo surprised him by stepping up to him personally.

“... Do yourself a service and look out for your own health,” Hanzo said simply, giving Johnny a bow too.

There was a rather cutting remark about taking one’s own advice on the tip of his tongue before he caught it and swallowed it back down. The man was going out of his way to express, in his own way, concern for his well being. Might as well be grateful.

“... Yeah. You too, Hanners? I just started liking you,” Johnny said, popping the man’s shoulder fondly.

Hanzo smiled and Johnny’s mood immediately flared up. The rare Hahasi smile. Raiden or Fujin must have blessed him that morning.

With his spirits soaring, Johnny offered the man a wink and teleported to the next location.


	2. Outworld's Pests

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Language, mentions of depression and ptsd, mentioned character death
> 
> Next up, an update on Outworld!
> 
> Notes:  
> 1.) I go with restored!Ermac because... rotting corpse is generally yucky but also rotting corpse plus hot humid heat and Ermac is just revolting to think about. This version is sort of a bastard of several amazing restored Ermac's around the web (mostly Judgementfist and Eulerami), but generally all you need to know is that this one is Egyptian, slightly shorter but broad and muscular, scruffy and long hair
> 
> 2.) I went with Skarlet's mk11 appearance because her mk9 one is.... not good
> 
> 3.) A sort of nod towards Tanya's arcade ending

The next visit, since Hanzo showed up at the Lin Kuei temple, was Outworld.

As it turned out, when doom was not breathing down everyone’s necks, the big beautiful blue bastard was more than happy to keep a diplomatic peace with Earthrealm. But that meant it was on the list of places that needed to be checked up on when people were doing the rounds to make sure that Armageddon was not starting up again with a single spark. And considering the shit that was always stirring with Outworld? Outworld was on the list of ‘Cannot Skip’.

“Cage,” Kotal Kahn said when Johnny landed on his castle steps. 

The big blue man himself was standing there in the heat of midday beating down on the world relentlessly, unfazed even as Johnny could feel sweat form and bead down the back of his hoodie. The cow-asshole and the twin terrors were with him too, also unfazed by the heat. Fucking Outworlders and their humid and heavy heat.

“Your majesty,” Johnny said politely enough. Kotal had to be worked up to his usual wit and snappy remarks. Which was… fine. Boring as fuck, but fine.

“I assume that General Blade has once again sent you to be assured that all is well?” Kotal Kahn said, already motioning for Johnny to follow him into the palace. He took stride behind the man with Erron following behind him and the twin terrors running off somewhere.

“Yep! No doom and gloom on our watch,” Johnny said lightly enough. “I know you guys are still dealing with the civil war but at least we want to make sure we don’t have a huffy Elder god making things worse. Or… you know, something worse than that making things worse.”

“Hmm… there have been no changes. This ‘civil war’ that Mileena started has waned greatly since her death,” Kotal Kahn said as he lead them to the throne room where it was blissfully cooler. 

Johnny stood all prim and proper, hands behind his back and everything a respectful distance away as the man sat down heavily. Even the emperor’s fancy headpiece must have gotten heavy. Erron stood by Kotal’s side, mirroring Johnny’s proper stance. Johnny noted that since the asshole got that promotion that belonged to the head Bee-itch, he was dressed a bit more ‘neatly’. Or at least more than usual for the human raccoon. A more proper shirt underneath his leather chest piece and his cape/poncho(?) thing was now not a patchwork mess but instead of deep red material. He was still a grubby cowboy themed asshole, but slightly more put together.

“Yeah, she was the spearhead. How’s the hunt for Tanya?”

“No results but she is running out of places to hide as I unite Outworld underneath my rule. Many are seeing that Mileena, while powerful and certainly a force to be reckoned with, made a pale claim to the throne. And at your Earthrealm insistence I have been… listening, changing laws,” Kotal Kahn grumbled. “I have tried to release several realms that Shao Kahn claimed under his time, but they chose to remain under rule with laxer laws. Many do mind not the change in leadership if I allowed them to reclaim their identities.”

“I bet they’re just happy to reclaiming their culture,” Johnny pointed out helpfully.

“That was the qualm of many realms that the former Shao Kahn devoured in his blind greed. Allowing them to regain and reclaim their culture had brought a mass of support to my claim and while I do not hold the lands, many have claimed loyalty to me.”

“That’s good... Oh right, you mentioned raiding some of the hidden labs deeper in the palace?”

“Yes. Nothing of note so far, unfortunately. There were several labs that looked like they were used to create Mileena but filled with… ‘partial’ failed copies and failed copies. All dead and now all burned,” Kotal Kahn recounted, looking as thrilled about that as a sane person would be. Johnny grimaced too. Hate her or not, it still was probably a gruesome sight to see Mileena failures or chunks of her in gross evil laboratories. “But there are many more rooms that we are finding with magic and such.”

Magic…

“Hey, speaking of magic, how’s ol green eyes holding up?”

As if knowing that someone was talking about them, Ermac teleported into the throne room at their emperor’s side. But unlike before where the smell of rot would make a room uninhabitable, Ermac still looked very brown and fleshy, still a hunk and still very much alive since Johnny last saw them not too long ago. Also if Johnny’s nose was not failing him, smelled delightfully of cinnamon and… honey?

“I must thank Ms. Cassandra again for helping Ermac gain a new body,” Kotal Kahn said, nodding towards Ermac as they floated lopsidedly until they self corrected. This body was bit more of a… ‘brick shithouse’ than their last body and they were probably still getting used to it. 

“Honestly? It was more for us than you guys,” Johnny laughed. “It’s really hard to want to be diplomatic when your palace smelled like body dumpsite in high heat.”

Kotal Kahn just groaned, not so fondly remembering the smell of his sorcerer that had become rather aggressive not long after Shinnok’s defeat. Thankfully one misadventure and the soul jar of a being was now in a low maintenance new fleshy body and there was one less thing keeping people from visiting. The heat, bugs, Erron and the general weirdness of Outworld were still there, but at least no one had to smell the former corpse Ermac stinking up the joint.

“Good to see you’re still a weird hot soul jar,” Johnny said, winking at Ermac who only blinked slowly at him. Right, they were still weird and not human, despite the yummy outsides. “And you know not… rotting.”

“That was hellish, admittedly,” Ermac said in that ‘whispery thousand persons’ voice that remained even with the new bod. They turned to their emperor. “We discovered a new laboratory by following the linger shredded remains of living energy.”

“Come then, Mr. Cage. This is the only change in our realm and I know Commander Blade will want a full report about this since you heard of it,” Kotal Kahn said, getting up. 

Johnny trailed after Kotal, Ermac and Erron, resisting the urge to flip Erron’s hat. As much as Kotal would let him get away with it, it was best to behave… for now. He still had to cement his role as king of flipping the cow-asshole’s hat off his head over Jin (who used to do the rounds a lot until missions got him).

They got through a few hallways before the hairs on the back of Johnny’s neck started standing up. Was not until he smelled the strong smell of copper before he relaxed, grinning sideways as blood started seeping through one of the walls that they were passing. He kept grinning as the blood came out and then congealed and started forming a familiar creature. They passed before she was fully formed, but she hit the ground not long after and came floating by.

“Lil Red!” Johnny grinned when she caught up. He looked her up and down and grinned a bit wider. “Love the new haircut!”

“Why thank you!” The Konstruct of blood smiled so pretty like before fluffing her much shorter haircut than the last time that Johnny saw her. “I’m learning how to change my shape, slowly but surely. How does it look, black with red instead of red with black?”

“Pretty as fuck.”

Skarlet beamed before twirling, probably pointedly drawing attention to her body.

“Hey! You’re portioned like a real girl now, Red!”

“I know! This form is much more fitting than what that swine Shao tried to make me use,” Skarlet beamed. She was also wearing a much more modest outfit, layers of black and red cloth and leather instead of the… that ‘bikini’ that she used to wear. “Also, I may be made of blood, but that oversized breasts gave me backaches.”

“Good on you!” Johnny said, knuckle bumping her shoulder affectionately. “How’s your high and mighty Kotal Kahn treating you?”

“I mean… he got me out of that arena?”

“I mean besides that.”

“Oh! Very good. He even has put me to work. I currently hunt for Tanya-- oops, pardon me, Johnny!”

Skarlet drifted forward to Kotal’s side, floating alongside of him.

“My emperor, I have a small but disappointing update. We found the location that Tanya may have been hiding and according to reports, she was there. But she was tipped off and fled the scene. The locals had no idea whom they were harbouring and vowed to make sure she could not hide there a second time,” Skarlet reported back diligently.

“Hmm… well we did not capture her but we gave her one less hole to hide in. Continue your good work, Skarlet,” Kotal Kahn rumbled.

Skarlet bowed in midair before falling back, likely to slow and then hit the ground before turning into blood and leaving. Johnny caught her before that and pulled the surprise out of his pocket.

“Been meaning to get this too you, but with your blood powers we wanted to make sure it was as about as liquid proof as possible,” Johnny said, holding out the phone for her. “Also a waterproof case because we know you can take things with you when you transform. So it should keep it safe if you don’t try and push your luck.”

“Ohh… you’ve unleashed me onto your chat group, you know this?” Skarlet grinned as she took the gift. 

“Who’s idea do you think it was to give you it?” Johnny grinned.

Skarlet grinned, but tucked the phone away into her outfit and fell behind, feet hitting the ground and disappearing into a blood puddle that slipped between the cracks of the castle flooring. Johnny grinned to himself before catching up to the group.

Speaking of which, they had apparently reached the place. It looked like another blank hallway wall, but Ermac waved one of their hands bathed in green energy across it and a door shimmered into existence. Ermac opened the door first, holding it open for the rest of the group to join them inside--

“Not as gruesome as I thought,” Johnny noted.

Looked like more of a workshop than actual lab. More notes with desks and drawings and pieces of tanks than tanks. 

Ermac wandered over to a cluster of notes and sneered at them.

“Shang Tsung’s writing, our emperor,” Ermac said, holding out a page to show him.

“Hmm… well the notes might be of use in discovering more hidden chambers and such. Or perhaps other konstructs. Will you need anything to report?” Kotal Kahn asked, looking over everything but not daring touch any of that bastard’s work.

“Nah, I’ll just update Commander Blade that you found another room with notes. If you think anything needs our immediate attention, make sure to update us as soon as you can. Otherwise I’ll be around in two weeks and you can update me then.”

Kotal Kahn nodded, looking over the notes but leaving Ermac to deal with them as they were the most qualified to make heads or tails of it all, instead leaving with Erron and Johnny trailing after him.

“Will you require anything else for your update?” Kotal Asked.

“Let’s see… Ferra and Torr, check. Erron, check. Skarlet, check. Ermac, check. You, check. Uh… Reptile and Rain?” Johnny asked, rattling nails off his fingers before he got to the last two.

“Reptile is also on the hunt for Tanya, using his abilities to spy and hunt rather than anything aggressive like Skarlet. He should be out in the field at the moment but as far as I know, there has been no changes for him. As for Rain…”

Kotal paused, looking around getting a feel for his location, and then started walking in a new direction. They walked a distance before coming to a window. Looking out, Johnny saw that it was a window facing a river that ran through a courtyard. It looked like there was a small station to filter out the water and on the banks aiding the process? The purple clad demi-god himself, waving his hands and working his stuff getting some junk that the station seemed to miss.

“Still working on helping provide more readily available water for the people. It soothes him after being sold out by Tanya.”

Johnny could not help but feel a pang of sympathy for the man. No one left so of course he would just turn to work to keep his mind numb from feeling.

“Anyone check on his like… person? Because Rain was already… you know. And a pissed off demi-god?” Johnny asked.

“We speak to him sometimes,” Ermac said, nearly making Johnny jump. Turning to glare, Johnny saw Ermac hand off several sheets of paper to Kotal to look over before addressing him. “He is a tortured soul. But one that shall not seek vengeance anytime soon unless personally offended.”

“Right, so no one use him for some shit?” Johnny said, finger-gunning at the group. No response. Tough crowd. “Anyway I think I’m good on the update and all good. Anyone want to speak up before I go?”

“I believe all is well. Send my best regards to Special Forces,” Kotal Kahn said, bowing his head to Johnny politely.

“Alright, I guess I’m--” Johnny swung his arm dramatically and accidently knocked Erron’s hat off. “Shit, sorry.”

Erron grumbled and bent over to pick up his hat. Johnny snapped a quick pic while Kotal chuckled underneath his breath. “Truely sorry about that man. You know if I had meant to do that, I’d be gloating.”

“Whatever,” Erron grumbled, dusting his hat off and replacing it.

“Anyway, I’m off for real. I’ll be in the market until my teleporting amulet thing is charged up. Gotta get me a big basket of those sour blue fruits. The kids inhale those.”

“I’ll join you! I need supplies,” Skarlet said, leaking out of the wall partially formed.

“Fight well, Johnny Cage,” Kotal Kahn said as he followed Skarlet.

“Good luck kicking ass, Kahn!”


	3. The Sky and Shaolin Temples

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Mentions of ptsd, depression
> 
> Johnny visits the Shaolin temple and Sky Temple

The next stop was the infamous Sky Temple.

Johnny whistled loudly as he appeared inside, just having been on the SF base from dropping off a bunch of Outworld fruit for the kids (making sure to hide some for Jin when he got back). If he was right, then he would only have to look around a bit to see one of the three inhabitants of the temple as there was always one there at all times. Especially now and the main force behind the need to do checkups on everyone.

“Anyone home?!” Johnny called out through the eerily quiet building. Usually there was some noise going on and this was just spooky. Though he supposed that the jinsei was still being repaired and therefore could not ‘hum’ as it usually did. 

After looking around a few empty rooms and turning up no one, Johnny thought about pinging Raiden on that nearly indestructible phone that SF made special for him, as he entered the library as the last place to look. Peeking around, Johnny almost called the room empty when his eyes landed on a pale figure that was standing in the corner looking at an ancient looking book. 

Under the pale lights of the Sky Temple, his deathly white skin looked all the paler and death bleached bones like. The purple-ish bruising/coloring around his eyes looked all the darker. The permanent tear stain like marks deeper and darker. The barely hidden scar that circled his neck seemed almost menacing in the dim light. Intense eyes looked at Johnny and scowled darkly.

Shinnok.

“SHINY!” Johnny yelled.

“Must you raise your voice?” Shinnok grumbled.

“Yes,” Johnny deadpanned before grinning crookedly.

A small spark of electricity alerted the two to Raiden teleporting into the room, followed by a burst of lightning and the thunder god materializing into the library. The man smoothly continued to walk after materializing, striding over to the two of them as Raiden took off his hat, letting his long white hair stream free.

“Johnny Cage.”

“Hey Lightning Bug!” Johnny grinned as the big man came up to them, popping the man once in the shoulder when he was close enough. “Just doing the rounds again. Saw Shiny here before you.”

“Must you insist on calling me that?” Shinnok sneered.

“It’s like the only way I antagonize you, Shiny Britches,” Johnny whined.

“Gentlemen,” Raiden said, raising his voice over theirs, staring them down until they both kept their lips zipped. “... I welcome you back to the temple, Johnny. Yours is always a welcome visitor.”

Shinnok muttered something and Raiden simply stared at him pointedly. Shinnok glared back. It took a few moments of them glaring for Johnny to realize that they were probably speaking through their minds or some shit. He waited for them to get done before realizing that he was still there and looking back and forth between them. Raiden coughed politely and Shinnok pouted with as much dignity as he could, crossing his arms across his chest.

“You two are like an old married couple sometimes, I swear,” Johnny laughed.

Completely ignoring that remark, Raiden beckoned Johnny to follow him through the temple, Shinnok following and still huffy, and remarking about any changes. 

The most Raiden had to offer was that repairs were still underway but good progress was being made. Walls being rebuilt, debris cleared out, Fujin had just dusted the place the other day by sending a focused miniature hurricane through the place (Shinnok had a few rather colorful sounding opinions about that). Overall, nothing of note really. Boring.

“Hey is Wind Bro about?”

“Of course,” Fujin said, appearing out of thin air and with a small burst of rushing air.

“Eyyy, how’s it hanging?”

“It goes,” Fujin smiled easily.

“Still pissing off Shiny when you can?”

“Of course!”

“Fujin please,” Raiden groaned.

Fujin giggled and disappeared again.

“So nothing new here in the god house?” Johnny noted.

“Ah… no, my apologies,” Raiden said.

“Don’t apologize. We want boring. We want safe. We want nothing out of the ordinary,” Johnny pressed. “And if that means Shinny asshole is under house arrest for the rest of time so that you’re not going nuts and red eyed and shit and bringing doom again--”

Raiden shuddered and Johnny immediately felt bad. Raiden being corrupted and ‘Dark Raiden’ was still… rough… still bleeding inside the might thunder god’s head.

“Hey, hey, it’s all good,” Johnny said, half jogging to catch up to the big man’s long strides and grabbing his arm. Raiden stopped but kept his head down, looking at the floor, pale eyes downcast and distraught. So Johnny hugged the big guy, surprising him before the might god of thunder relaxed and awkwardly hugged him back. “Shit happened. Shit got fixed. Shit is better. No use being hung up about it.”

“Of… course.”

Johnny let him go but popped his shoulder softly.

“I’m serious, Raiden. It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay.”

Raiden just nodded, shoulders slumped as he sighed out deeply.

“So, an rather lackluster report for Commander Blade,” Shinnok piped up.

“Yeah, but like I said. Boring is better than nothing,” Johnny shrugged.

“You should rest,” Raiden said.

“Jesus not you too,” Johnny groaned, “I got that from ice man AND Han too.”

“Perhaps if the bags were not so prominent,” Shinnok retorted.

“I just didn’t get any sleep last night, I’m fine.”

That came out… really aggressive and really mean and now Johnny had two gods giving him raised eyebrows at him. Fuck. Shit. Laugh it off, Johnny boy, like you’ve always done.

“Sorry, sorry. Kids got back from a rough mission last night and I pried myself out of bed to see if they were okay,” Johnny groaned, rubbing his eyes before pulling out his shades and slipping them on. No one could see the tired eyes then. “I’ll be okay and I’m just doing the rounds today. I will pass out when I get home for good today.”

He must have really sounded bad when Shinnok of all people gave him a worried look. Man how did he fuck up that bad…

“Then we should no keep you,” Raiden said, inclined his head towards Shinnok. “Can you quickly recharge the amulet you made him?”

“A simple feat.”

“Not really gonna help me, godly bros. I still gotta visit the Shaolin temple. And then I gotta check up on the Netherrealm outpost to see if they’re all good. And--”

“But it will take half an hour off your troubles and that will mean about half an hour more for you to sleep,” Shinnok interrupted him, snapping his fingers and the amulet in his pocket jumped out and into his pale hand.

“You need the rest Johnny. The world is no longer ending so you cannot neglect your own personal needs.”

Sucking it up, Johnny watched Lord Shinny waggle his fingers over the amulet, letting purple sparks drift over it. After a few seconds of this, the stones started shining and glowing again. All charged up and ready to go again.

“Thanks,” Johnny muttered, taking it when Shinnok held it out.

“Do rest, Johnny Cage. We need you,” Raiden said as he held the amulet in hand.

“Yeah, yeah,” Johnny sighed.

* * *

Was Johnny a broken man? Yes. Was Johnny a sad man? Yes. Was Johnny hiding a lot? Yes.

Was Johnny adjusting to a calmer world? No.

Was Johnny gonna do anything about it? No.

The Shaolin temple was waiting for him when he appeared. It was evening for them and it looked like most everyone was inside or making their way there. It looked peaceful enough and Johnny was yet again reminded of the thing that he was not adjusting too. Fuck it probably was time to go visit the therapist again.

“Hey, Mr. Cage,” Jin grinned, quickly bouncing down the steps towards him. The poor kid’s eyes were sleep bruised just like his. His arm was also in a cast and also in a sling.

“Hey Legolas, how’s the arm holding up?”

“Hurts,” Jin groaned.

“Yeah, it’s gonna. Make sure you don’t exert yourself and try to not clench that arm up at all. Also make sure you’re drinking plenty of water and getting sleep. It’ll help make sure it heals as fast as it can,” Johnny rattled off.

“Yeah, yeah… m’doing most of that. Sleep is kind hard when--”

“I know. It’s not some you can easily shake off, kiddo. But you gotta. If you dwell on it, it’s gonna get worse.”

“Yeah... thanks Mr. Cage.”

“Now, run me through any changes you monks have been through. I’m tired as fuck and have gotten yelled at by like four people to get some sleep.”

No changes and no surprise. They had a few new students, people always eager to help protect the realm from people out to get it even if it looked like the realm was at piece for the first time in a long time. There was nothing burning on the horizon, nothing building up. But it was good for them to have people ready and eager to defend, ready to dedicate their lives to something even if they never really got to use it.

“Anyway, I already verified everything through Commander Blade. No mysteries here other than the one guy that went from like a billionaire lifestyle to this,” Jin said after running him through everything.

“Wait, seriously?”

“Yeah! Donated everything and moved out here. He’s actually a really good student but looks like he wants to do more groundskeeping than actual fighting. Which is great. Still weird, but great.”

“Yeah.”

“Cass said you used to have a lot of money, Mr. Cage.”

“Well, when SF started up they needed private backing for the world governments to take them seriously so I helped them out,” Johnny shrugged. “And I still have a lot of that money. I still do small movie projects now and again.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah. Small side roles and trainer roles and acting classes for people just getting into the business. Also small time romantic stuff like romcoms and junk. Turns out there’s a demand for older gentlemen with cool tempers in the business. Also they’re fun too, especially the people that really care about the plo rather then trying to sell to the niche group.”

“You don’t talking about your movie stuff often, Mr. Cage,” Jin suddenly added.

_Because it hurts._

Surprised by his own thoughts, Johnny just sort of shrugged. He had not really thought about his movie stuff now-a-days. It was just a side project. His passion now just a side gig he did when things got slow at SF and he did not want to get stuck at a desk. Anything but being stuck behind a desk with a mountain of paperwork waiting for him and endless dull shit hitting him again and again over the course of a twelve hour day. He still had no idea how Sonya did it day after day. 

“It’s not important. I got a big boy job now. It’s just… a thing I do.”

“I thought you used to love it?”

“Shit changes Jin. Shit gets boring. I don’t know what to tell you.”

Jin was staring at him with those same eyes that Raiden, Shinnok, Hanzo and Kuai Liang gave him. Worry and pity and it made his stomach hurt really bad. Jesus was his acting that bad he could not even put on a brave face without someone seeing past it? When he did he start slipping up this bad? Was he really that tired? Was he really just breaking down? Hitting that point of no return?

“Hey uh, they’re serving dinner. Wanna join us?” Jin offered.

“I don’t know Jin-Jin, I still gotta check up on the Netherrealm outpost--”

“How about this? I don’t get Raiden down here to keep you here. Eat dinner here… sir.”

Johnny snorted.

“Fine, fine! But you all better have some comfort food or something, my day’s been shit,” Johnny laughed.

“We’re a temple of monks!” Jin protested.

“With how much junk I’ve seen you eat, I know you have a stash somewhere, kiddo. Your gay ass better share because I squirrelled away a bunch of those shitty sour blur fruits from Outrealm just for you because I knew you’d be having it rough.”

Jin laughed and Johnny felt better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOTES: 
> 
> 1.) Shinnok is decorrupted and working on redeeming himself. There's no major changes in his appearance other than his eyes now glow green instead of red and he has a scar from where his head was cut off and reattached
> 
> 2.) Shinnok is currently under house arrest in the Sky Temple until Raiden deems him safe enough to leave, Shinnok is not fighting this
> 
> 3.) Jin's gonna be okay, he just needs to take his time and heal


	4. Tomorrow will Be Yet another Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Mention of past Johnny/Sonya, depression, implied PTSD
> 
> Tomorrow will be another day and Johnny would give the world for it to not be so

Netherrealm outpost.

Johnny was still not quite sure how it worked. They were close enough to Netherrealm to spy but not close enough to be seen and apparently in this little tucked away corner away from the real madness of the realm? Johnny had to ask Sareena about it again, he was sure that she would love to rattle the explanation off again for him and he did not have Shiny to easily recharge his amulet, so he was stuck there until it recharged. So he would have the time.

“Johnny!” Sareena grinned when he stepped through and stepped into the main room of the fortified outpost. Still messy from what Johnny assumed were Sareena’s experiments and note taking, various sketches and handwritten notes sprawled everywhere as well as jars with what Johnny could only assume were… samples. All made to seem more like an evil lab with the low light of the building.

“Hey! How’s it going?” Johnny grinned as Sareena bounded up and hugged him.

“Good! Well… kinda boring, but that’s good!”

“Yep, boring is perfection. So I guess that means you don’t have any changes to report?”

“Nope sorry. I have had a few new theories on the biology, anatomical structure and chemical composition of the demons here, but uh… you get bored listening to those…”

“I only get bored because I don’t understand. Never get tired of your boundless enthusiasm, Jumping Bean. How’s our lady in white?”

“She’s out hunting right now,” Sareena smiled as she let Johnny go to quickly clean up a bit. “Ashrah tends to like to clean up demons that she thinks will try and cross over to the other realms and hurt others. She also likes to try and spy on the…”

Johnny sighed. The Revenants. One of the many reasons he hated checking up on the outpost, getting reminded of innocent people that were forever trapped as the hellish undead. No one knew if there was a way to free them now without trying to pull Quan Chi’s evil slimy soul back from wherever he was and no one was eager to do that. Now they could only hope and pray that one of the many people pondering the problem could come up with a solution.

“Anyway, nothing too big to report. Honestly it’s been so quiet around here,” Sareena said as she picked up a stack of papers.

“Yeah, seems like that everywhere,” Johnny sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Right now? No, we need it this quiet. Anyway, since I’m stuck here until the amulet recharges, need my help with anything?”

“I wouldn’t mind a hand cleaning up!”

Sareena chattered almost non-stop about her research, filling the void of silence as they quickly picked up the central room. Most of it was lost on Johnny, not having the plethora of knowledge about such things at his disposal such as the adorable athletic demoness. But the clear passion and enthusiasm in her words were there and her voice was pleasant and it helped idle away the minutes as they cleaned. Johnny still refused to touch the samples.

“And, I was thinking about the possible use of using synthesized material to make a sensory camouflage--”

“What?”

“Oh, sorry! Basically I think I can make a fake smell to make the base smell more like it belongs in Netherrealm and scents to better hide myself and Ashrah.”

“Ah damn, that’s cool. If you get that to work, make sure to tell Sons about it, it could be useful if we need to come here in a sneaky mission or something.”

“Can do!”

“Can do what?”

Ashrah, like the elegant pale dressed dream that she was, swept into the room. Impeccable as ever, she hardly looked like she had gone for a light walk, let alone had just gotten back from hunting demons.

“You’re back! How’d it go?” Sareena said, bouncing up to greet her coworker.

“Well enough, nothing to report. My apologies, greetings Johnny Cage. It is good to see you,” Ashrah smiled at Johnny, dipping her head until her hat hid her face.

“Hey Ash, nice to see you too,” Johnny grinned. “How are things?”

“Well they are… boring, to be quite frank my dear. The demons have shifted away from this place and the Reverents have gone back to mindless fighting. The Emperor of these parts does nothing but fight these days. Though I suppose it is a good thing, all things considered.”

“Uh… gonna be honest with you, Ashrah. It’s still a bad thing, it’s just not the worst thing,” Johnny said, scratching at his jaw mindlessly.

“I… of course. My apologies.”

“Nah sorry it’s… it’s okay. Anyway check up’s all good if nothing’s wrong and you ladies don’t need anything…”

“My usual requests that I already sent out for the month’s supplies!”

“I require nothing, my thanks, Mr. Cage.”

He pulled out his amulet, all the gems gleaming sinisterly in the low light.

“Alright… have fun you two, call if you need anything.”

And Johnny was gone.

* * *

“Anyway, nothing to report from all the bases that we want to keep tabs on,” Johnny told Sonya as he sat on her office couch (her request because he apparently looked ‘dead on his feet’) and playing with one of the stress toys from the small box on the corner of her desk. A squishy and cartoony Shao Kahn head that Johnny took far too much joy in squeezing as tightly as he could.

“Nothing at all?” Sonya asked, not looking up from her reports, a pen held between her fingers like she used to hold her cigs. It looked as chewed as those stinky cancer sticks used to be before she quit that disgusting habit.

“Nope. Shiny and Lightning Bug are all snug up at Sky Temple. Outworld really hasn’t had any changes and are still hunting down Tanya but it sounds like they’re slowly but surely closing in on her. The Shaolin temple is doing well, though they’re kind bored. Netherrealm is still depressing and terrifying as fuck but no changes and our… our friends aren’t doing much but fighting now a days.”

Sonya nodded, sighing. She looked tired and probably needed a nap more than Johnny. The great Commander Blade worked twelve hours shifts are minimum, sometimes pulling fifteen or more if shit was happening. Thankfully, nothing was happening.

“Hey, you getting sleep?” Johnny asked.

“Yeah. Things have calmed down since the world isn’t ending anymore. I should be out by seven today and can give things over to my second. Cassie mentioned wanting to get dinner with all of us but we both want you to get some sleep, Ca-... Johnny.”

Johnny screwed up his nose at the almost slip up. After twarting Shinnok they had gone to ‘’couples’’ therapy to try and repair their relationship. Not to fix their already broken marriage, they had both agreed that they were good friend and better coworkers, but a couple? They were not meant to be. But they had come to realize that as much as they wanted to boast that they were cool exes… they were not. Therapy had helped a lot and Sonya was calling him Johnny a lot more than the cold hard ‘Cage’ that had for the longest time seemed like a ruthless victory over their divorce.

“Ah come on, don’t tell me that. I love eating out with you two,” Johnny groaned.

“We will reschedule. I wouldn’t… I’m sorry. I didn’t meant it like that,” Sonya sighed, rubbing her eyes tiredly.

“It’s okay Sons. I think we both need a nap more than socialization anyway. Plus we can text each other and voice chat. And the world isn’t ending, so we can move it to like… a weekend or something.”

“Hmm… what are you doing tomorrow?”

“Uh… probably dumb paperwork unless something happens.”

“How about tomorrow at eight we hit up some place then? Cassie, Jacquie and Takeda only have training on base tomorrow.”

“I’ll feel bad for Jac and Tech-tech!”

Sonya snorted, grinning crookedly and making Johnny feel a bit better.

“We’ll order crappy Chinese take-out or greasy pizza and chowdown in here, how about that?”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Johnny grinned back.

“In the meantime, I got a few papers to sign off and a few reports to read and I might get out early. I need a shower and sleep really bad. You too.”

“You sayin’ I stink?”

Sonya smirked again and Johnny grinned back.

“Alright, alright. Night, Sons!”

“Night Johnny.”

Johnny replaced the stress ball and hummed as he left Sonya’s office. The merry tune only lasted as long as it took to get to his car and Johnny tried very hard to drown out the sound of his own thoughts with the radio as he drove off base and to his place about thirty minutes away.

What was it that someone said once… ‘You are your own worst enemy’. It sure as shit seemed like that when Johnny was not on base. On base he could focus on something, even if it was mind numbing paperwork, but at home? Not even mental labour seemed to keep him from slipping into his own thoughts of worryingly increasing misery and despair. Shit… he really did need to kick himself in the pants and get back into therapy.

At home, he parked his car in the garage and trudged in. Modest house, not like that glamor mansion his booking agent had pretty much forced him to buy back in the olden days. ‘It’ll make you look like you’re worth so much more money!’ the grease ball had explained. Johnny had fired him not too long after that fateful tournament had started and shit started going sideways. No. Now he was in this modest little house that felt a lot better but still achingly empty.

Keys in the key dish by the door. The dog walker left a note saying that his girls were angels and that they both had been bathed and fed. Said beasts came rushing from their cushions in the living room, a big slobbery and monster of a Old English Bulldog, Marshmallow, and a retired police dog and Greater German Shepard, Peaches.

“Hey, my sweet babies,” Johnny cooed as he sat on the floor to get kissed a lot. “Huh? Miss me?”

After getting in some loving, Johnny shooed his girls back a bit so that he could get up and trudge deeper into the house, discarding his gear for the day. Boots, socks, jacket, hoodie, shirt, belt, leaving him shirtless and his loosened pants kept in place by his soft tummy and all his glorious dad-bod weight. The people that bitched that he was hotter and more marketable when he was carved and dehydrated muscle could still suck his dick.

The kitchen offered simple fare, he would have groceries delivered on Monday like clockwork. For now he threw something quick together and took it out into the living room to go numb behind the television. Marshmallow managed to get her big, burly and wrinkly body up onto his legs when he kicked back in his recliner while Peachers got back onto her cushion so that she could watch the TV, she liked the moving pictures and voices.

It was only after he had polished off his dinner that those thoughts came back. Deep, depressing thoughts about how this was his life now. No kombat, no life or death, no doom coming to them through an overly dramatic and fashion obsessed drama king of a former Elder God, no fighting, not a lot of missions just… nothing. Life was moving on.

Grunting, Johnny got his phone out of pocket and dialed up the number that was still saved in his phone. The machine picked up, dingly merrily before a recorded, soft voice explained how to leave a message.

“Hey, my name is… Jonathan Cage. I used to be a patient here underneath Mrs. Shaw? I was wondering if I could get back to having sessions. All my information is the same and hey! No apocalypse that I know of that we gotta worry about! Anyway if you could just call me back and let me know I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!”

Ending the call, Johnny was forced to look at the screen and the brightly lit numbers telling him that it was quickly approaching ten. Back in the day that meant Johnny’s day was finally starting. Now it was very much past his bedtime and he very much needed sleep before he started hallucinating or some shit.

Leaving the TV on for Peaches and to have some noise in the house or else he would go apeshit, Johnny trudged up stairs with Marshmallow happily trotting after him, padding to his bedroom. Not bothering with the light, Johnny wriggled out of his pants and just collapsed in bed, sinking into the blankets and mattress as he just dead weighted like a corpse. In a feat of muscle, Marshmallow jumped up and quickly cuddled up against his legs and was out like a light. He reached down and idly toyed with her soft ears as his tired mind caved under extreme exhaustion and started shutting off the lights.

Tomorrow would just be another day and that thought provoked more dread than looking down Shinnok as D’Vorah put maggots in his face.


	5. The Beginning of the End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Implied depression, language, mentioned hickies, suggestive/mildly nsfw discussions of sex, masturbation and sexual fantasies
> 
> The world is is peace... (?)

In the morning, Johnny’s alarm woke him up, chiming that it was time to get up and get ready for work. Marshmallow, who had ended up hugged against his chest, huffed loudly and yawned hard enough to make her jaw pop. Johnny groaned as he got up, yawning loudly and stretching until his own old joints popped as well before getting up to turn his alarm off and trudge to the shower. Without bothering to turn on the lights, he quickly washed off the previous day’s sweat before trudging out naked into his bedroom to grab fresh clothing.

Get clothes on. 

Grab wallet, keys, phone, extra pair of shades. 

Wished his babies well. 

Out the door and in his car and at base before he can think. 

Make his way to his office.

Start tackling the what might as well have been the mountain of paperwork that was sitting on his desk.

Take a break after an hour because he was about to pull his goddamn hair out.

[Earthrealm Alliance Chat]

Johnny: Someone end me or do this paperwork for me  
Sonya: No can do.  
Takeda: ;P  
Sonya: @Takeda I see you.  
Takeda: >__>;;  
Johnny: Sons have mercy, I’m dying. I can feel my brain cells biting it in boredom ;n;  
Sonya: You don’t think mine doesn’t either?  
Johnny: I’d get more mercy out of Shinny huh?  
Sonya: Probably.  
Johnny: yrctfvgybhujik r00d  
Jax: :waves: Hey  
Johnny: DUDE  
Johnny: Where you been???  
Johnny: Besides farming i mean rtcybu  
Jax: One of our new neighbors picked up her dumb fuck drunk uncle’s farm  
Jax: Me and Vera have been helping her and her girlfriend out trying to get it together  
Jax: They let us have some of the piglets, two of the calves and two ponies until they get it together  
Johnny: BABY ANIMALS  
Johnny: SHARE????

[Jax has shared a image: JillKellySusanBilly-newpiglets]  
[Jax has shared a image: OreoPeachs-newcalves]  
[Jax has shared a image: SilverArthur-newhorses]

Johnny: omg Jax I’m dying they’re sooooo cute  
Jax: Thankfully me and Vera were in the market to get some new animals so it worked out just fine  
Jax: I still need some new chickens but what was there on that disaster plot escaped  
Johnny: trcuvyu feral chickens  
Jax: You should come up to the farm sometime, people bitch that you need a vacation anyway  
Sonya: He does need a vacation.  
Johnny: r00d  
Sonya: No seriously, you’re cumulative days are building up. If you don’t take a vacation soon…  
Sonay: I will physically drop you off at home and steal your car.  
Johnny: Ouch  
Johnny: Can I take the rest of the day off today OvO  
Sonya: No.  
Johnny: r00D!!!  
Sonya: I thought you wanted to get dinner with the kids tonight?  
Johnny: … dammit, I do

Another hour of work, another chunk of paperwork done. After pestering Sonya for tips and tricks, Johnny busted out the digital scanner and hooked that up and started typing shit onto digital copies and saving his cramping hand and his dwindling supply of pens.

Another hour of work. Johnny got a good chunk of paperwork done and took another break.

[Earthrealm Alliance Chat]

Johnny: *distant sobbing*  
Hanzo: Are you well?  
Johnny: Paperwork Hanners, it’s killing me  
Kuai-Liang: Are you taking a break now?  
Johnny: Oh lordy I got the vapours going, I got two beefy ninjas here today fretting over me :sweat: :sweat: :sweat:  
Kuai-Liang: Cage please  
Johnny: Let me enjoy the moment hot-sicle, and yes I am taking a break  
Johnny: What are you doing doing on anyway? You usually just call people  
Johnny: NOT THAT I’M COMPLAINING, PLEASE STAY ON  
Hanzo: Inquiring about the state of the young ones, Cassie mentioned going back to training and Jin being on base.  
Johnny: Cassie and Jin are just here, they ain’t training  
Johnny: OR I WILL BE MARCHING OUTSIDE >:(((  
Hanzo: No I’m pretty sure Cassie mentioned training a few moments ago

About fifteen minutes later, Cassie had several field reports on a borrowed end of his desk in Johnny’s office and Jin was texting away on his phone while sitting sullenly on his office couch. Occasionally Cassie held up a cold pack to her still purple and bruised eye and it made Johnny’s stomach crawl. Johnny decided to extend his break a few moments because of this shit. 

Johnny: WHO APPROVED THIS  
Sonya: As far as I knew they weren’t physically training.  
Johnny: I know it wasn’t you, Sons, you’re a hardass but a hardass with a conscious  
Johnny: Who let Jin try to excercise tho???  
Sonya: Already on it to fire someone’s ass.  
Johnny: IMMA SMACK THE BITCH OUTTA THEM  
Jin: *sweating*

“Jin, you really gotta give the arm a rest,” Johnny said, forgoing his phone to let his favorite archer know that this was serious. “If you strain it or anything near the break it’ll slow healing to a crawl or fuck up the healing and then you won’t be able to use your arm. You gotta take it easy.”

“Yes, sir,” Jin muttered dejectedly.

Another hour of work. The mountain was now more hilly plains and Johnny saw himself being done on time for dinner with the kids if no one came with another workload. Cassie carefully worked through coming and going migraines and her own hatred for paperwork. Jin tapped away on his phone and disappeared occasionally for bathroom breaks and vending machine raids for everyone but overall giving his body a break. Thankfully and blessedly.

[Earthrealm Alliance Chat]

Johnny: I… have… almost… won  
Kotal-Kahn: Paperwork?  
Johnny: KAHN GETS IT!!  
Kotal-Kahn: You have remarked about your displeasure for it several times.  
Ermac: Usage of a template will greatly cut down on time spent on it  
Johnny: … WHERE WERE YOU LIKE THREE HOURS AGO?!  
Ermac: Reading Shang’s writings about his construction of Mileena. They are early notes.  
Ermac: But fascinating regardless and may hold keys to keeping myself stable in the future should this new body falter or if Skarlet’s powers fluctuate and alter her shapeshifting ability.  
Johnny: Any new siblings we should know about?  
Ermac: There is a reference to a creature simply known as Meat, but the files claim he is dead.  
Ermac: The notes mention that there was an idea for a kreation based on Meat, but no further mention.  
Johnny: Mmm…. weird  
Ermac: Indeed.  
Kenshi: Hey Johnny  
Johnny: KEN DOLL  
Johnny: Haven’t heard from you in forever ;A;  
Kenshi: I’ve been busy tracking down Black Dragon rumors  
Johnny: Hey I have plans to feed your son dinner tonight, so you can’t take him >:(  
Kenshi: I wasn’t going too but hey… can I get in on that :eyes:  
Johnny: @Sonya ?  
Sonya: Yeah sure.  
Kenshi: :smile emote:

[PM from Johnny to Kenshi: Since I know I can talk to you about this]  
[PM from Johnny to Kenshi: But idk about you man but it’s been forever since I got laid :I ]  
[PM from Kenshi to Johnny: Same, but taking care of Takeda comes first]  
[PM from Johnny to Kenshi: I know, I was the same with Cass but she’s old enough and on her own]  
[PM from Johnny to Kenshi: And me and Sons got things friendly again]  
[PM from Johnny to Kenshi: I don’t know man I feel like if I get my rocks off I’ll feel a bit better]  
[PM from Kenshi to Johnny: You do anything on your own lately?]  
[PM from Johnny to Kenshi: I’ve tried but… I got thoughts that are… awkward.]  
[PM from Kenshi to Johnny: Oh?]  
[PM from Johnny to Kenshi: Uh… people come in when I’m having fun that… I shouldn’t be thinking about…]  
[PM from Kenshi to Johnny: Dude that can be very bad, spill!]  
[PM from Johnny to Kenshi: … Hanners… Iceman…]  
[PM from Kenshi to Johnny: Oh, what’s wrong with that?]  
[PM from Johnny to Kenshi: Dude they’re dating like… wow romantic dating]  
[PM from Kenshi to Johnny: WAIT REALLY? I THOUGHT THAT WAS ALL RUMOR!]  
[PM from Johnny to Kenshi: Nah man I do the rounds. Hanzo’s always over, I’ve seen hickies on each other’s throats. I’ve shown up a few mornings at either temple and will find the other there like he’s been sleeping there and just woke up.]  
[PM from Kenshi to Johnny: Well that’s very strong evidence but not stable…]

[PM from Johnny to Hanzo: You dating Kuai-Liang?]  
[PM from Hanzo to Johnny: … Are you just now figuring this out?]  
[PM from Johnny to Hanzo: Nah just figured I’d confirm is all Hanzo]  
[Pm from Hanzo to Johnny: … You’re acting strange.]

[PM from Johnny to Kenshi: [image-screenshot] ]  
[PM from Kenshi to Johnny: Ah damn. I’ll keep mum about it but damn.]  
[PM from Kenshi to Johnny: Well the fantasy debate is still there so I can only advise you to make good choices]  
[PM from Johnny to Kenshi: Yeah :/]  
[PM from Kenshi to Johnny: All else fails? A sex toy and a heated blanket works wonders for me.]

About seven, Johnny finished all his work and decided to start walking with Cassie and Jin over to Sonya’s office. 

They chatted about what they wanted to eat, Cassie partial to anything that was hot and greasy and Jin partial to anything that did not need two hands, and Johnny mostly wanting to be around other people. When they got there, Takeda and Jacqui were there and waiting on them, hashing out what they wanted from little flyers in Sonya’s desk from when she took dinner there, the woman herself finishing off the last three papers that needed her signature. Jacqui wanted Chinese and Takeda this place that sold the stuff to make your own fajitas. Sonya wanted whatever caused the less bitching.

They settled for pizza because Jin helpfully pointed out that he could only use one hand to eat and he was not willing to fuck up his still healing arm to try and eat something that required two. They bought seven different pies to suit tastes. Kenshi showed up not too long after the order was placed, thanking Johnny for getting him a plain cheese, and chatted amicably with the group as they waited. 

They were having a grand old time, laughing and joking and griping through grins about daily life. Thankfully everyone kept work talk at arm’s length, choosing personal details and little notes to things that they were gearing up for. Cassie was pecking away at Chinese lessons with Jacqui. Jin was talking with this boy. Sons was talking about getting another dog. Kenshi mentioned sticking around for a bit to gather intel but also because he really missed everyone. Johnny had nothing.

Takeda and Sonya went to grab the food when it got there and came back to a near ravenous group because they realized that most of them had not eaten properly that day.

It was about two slices in that Johnny’s phone rang.

“Hello?” Johnny asked, slice still in hand.

“Johnny?” Raiden said over the line.

“Everyone shut up, Lightning Bug is calling and that means it’s important,” Johnny called, everyone hushing up with a few giggles but no one taking it seriously.

Shinnok was defeated. The world was at peace. Why would they? What could possibly go wrong?

“There’s something wrong.”

“... What? W-wait, hold on, let me put you on speaker.”

Everyone was quiet now as Johnny put his phone and speaker and set it on Sonya’s desk. Everyone looked pale. Everyone looked sick.

“Something is wrong,” Raiden said again.

“Raiden report,” Sonya said, dead serious.

“A threat just made itself known,” Shinnok said on the other end. “And we do not have the means of defeating it.”

The world was no longer at peace.

Maybe Johnny could get some sleep now.


	6. Here She Comes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Language, mentioned blood and violence
> 
> It's the end of the world, baby!

“Alright, run us through it again,” Sonya said as she marched after Raiden as the big man brought another armful of things to where Shinnok was busy building… something. Johnny’s thighs were burning from walking so fast to match Raiden’s hurried long strides.

“A creature, one that is above even the Elder Gods, and only makes herself known when she is about to invade, is doing just that,” Raiden said. “Her name is ‘The First Seed of Revenge’ and she is a entity that feasts on secrets. She invades realms across the timelines and will take one that teams with her food source, wiping it out and strips it from reality and existence. She has targeted Earthrealm and this timeline and has given us little time to provide her with a feast to replace Earthrealm.”

“That’s nicer than our usual assholes,” Johnny said, feeling slightly winded as he jogged to keep up.

“Why destroy a food source if she does not have too? She is offering us a means of sustaining her for another day and leaving our realm intact so we must try to take it,” Raiden rumbled.

“You said that we don’t have the means to do that, though,” Sonya pointed out.

“Secrets. She sustains herself on secrets and we must gather enough of them, powerful secrets, enough to sate her appetite and send her on her way. When we present these to her, if she is not sated, she fights. So the ones to approach her will have to be the ones to give up their secrets. We do not have enough fighters to do that,” Raiden said, finally getting to a room that looked like Shinnok had taken for his workshop based on all the little half finished gadgets and other creepy odds and ends that screamed ‘Shinnok’s shit’.

It looked like the creepy bastard himself was trying to make another amulet, this one much larger than Johnny’s teleporting one and looked like it was more Raiden’s aesthetic then the former Elder God’s. Gold and porcelain with sapphire inlays and a large clear gem in the middle that Johnny could not name for the life of him. Shunnok took up one of the things Raiden laid out on his desk and added it in before hunching over to adjust something.

“So how do we fix that?” Sonya asked, sounding pissed off.

“We… have a terrible plan to return to us our lost fighters,” Raiden sighed.

“... You are not resurrecting that asshole!” Johnny snapped.

“What choice do we have? If we bring back his soul we can sever his mastery over the Reverents,” Shinnok snapped right back, turning to glare at Johnny. Reminded him of one of those hairless cats and he smirked insufferably with this intrusive need to piss Shinnok off and get him mad enough to react. Shinnok thankfully did not take the bait, staring down his nose at Johnny before returning to his work and Johnny immediately felt like a jackass for doing it, sighing and deflating.

“Alright, is there ANY way else, literally ANY way else to break the Reverents free?” Johnny asked before Sonya could start yelling.

“Sadly their souls are still bound to him, even if he’s dead. It is a… strange contract where it does not need one person to keep it up held but just that the contract still be there,” Shinnok explained. “We had an idea to bring back fighters that might still be free. I am aware of a young man named Cyrax?”

Johnny’s hand went to his throat. He could still feel the ghost of those fingers around his neck holding him up while someone else decided his fate. Cyrax spared him that day… but still. Sometimes Johnny still had nightmares about being held up like a prize by the man and awaiting verdict by Shao Kahn. That was not something he could just shrug off, especially after getting his ass handed to him…

“We’d need to ask Grandmaster Kuai Liang if he kept any parts of the cyborgs from his assault on their base that resulted in their destruction. He may also have the souls of other Lin Kuei that we could use…” Raiden trailed off.

Actually it seemed that they lost him for several seconds, the man’s face going completely blank and his glowy eyes going distant and dull. Finally Shinnok stood to snap his fingers in front of the man’s face several times, snapping him out of whatever thought he was having.

“What?” Shinnok asked.

“I… had a vision,” Raiden muttered, face scrunching in thought.

“Was it good? Bad? Come on Raiden, you can’t go cryptid on us now,” Johnny stressed.

“I… I do not know,” Raiden said, looking genuinely concerned.

“Don’t keep secrets, Raiden,” Sonya interjected, jabbing a finger at the much larger man, “Secret keeping is how we all got infected with corrupted blood magick. Secrets is why so much shit has gone down around here and most of it’s on you. Spill. Now.”

“It is but one possible future, Commander Blade, my powers do not allow me a clear cut vision of what will be, but what can be based on the current course of action--”

“RAIDEN!” Sonya yelled.

“DO NOT RAISE YOUR VOICE TO ME, MORTAL,” Raiden yelled back, eyes flashing red.

“Raiden,” Shinnok hissed.

The red vanished but the sudden anger remained. For a moment, Johnny was reminded of the god that had mercilessly tortured and beheaded Shinnok because he thought it was for the greater good and would serve as a message for Earthrealm’s opponents.

“...I saw a failure. Our fighters are down and it's just a bruised and bloodied Johnny Cage fighting The First Seed Of Revenge alone. But we will prevent it. When we gather the fighters we will train them.”

“How long do we have?” Sonya asked.

“She will arrive in roughly three months time. We have the location and we will prepare. But first we need the fighters to take her on if case the feast of secrets that gather is not enough to feed her,” Raiden said.

“Okay how about that? How do we do that?” Johnny asked.

“This,” Shinnok said, holding up the completed amulet. Now that it was done it looked far too gaudy for Raiden and more like… Shinnok and Raiden’s bastard aesthetic child. “You merely say the secret and it will gather it within. When she appears she will consume the amulet.”

“Alright so… how about we start as we try and figure out how we’ll get fighters for this?” Sonya sighed, taking the amulet and frowning at it.

“Myself and Shinnok will try and figure out if we can save the Reverents without resurrecting Quan Chi. If not we will inform you before then. If you two would take that and start gathering secrets, we can focus on this.”

“Of course,” Sonya sighed before marching out. 

Johnny followed behind her, half jogging to keep up with his stomping strides.

“Sons?” He asked when they were out of earshot.

“I don’t like the thought of you facing a big bad alone,” Sonya sighed loudly. The low light was making the age evident on her face, the worry and sickness. Johnny grabbed a shoulder and squeezed tightly.

“Well it sounds like me anyway,” Johnny joked lightly.

“...” Sonya looked at the amulet. “Want to be the first?”

“Uh… nah. I don’t think I have anything that would be worth anything anyway, I mean? Hey I’m an open book, get me talking and I’ll spill my guts,” Johnny shrugged.

“Heh, right,” Sonya smiled at him. “You’re an open book. Guess that means I’m up. How about you walk ahead and call our ride and I’ll tell this thing a few non-government secrets.”

Johnny smiled ahead and just did that.

* * *

Actually Johnny had a number of secrets that could in fact, ruin lives on some level big or small. About six or seven actually.

But was he going to tell that amulet them? Hell no, what if they came pouring out and did as he feared and fucked with other people's’ lives? Or ruined his? His was a delicate balance and usually on fire but he had just hit the dull curve and wanted to keep it there at least. And other people too, people were enjoying the dull and boring after of defeating one bad guy, how could he fuck with that by letting those secrets get out? He could not, that was the answer.

But for now they had to start gathering secrets to feed the so called beast.

Sonya was already updating everyone. She handed over the amulet to Johnny to take care of while she got the Special Forces ready. She would get started right away on beefing up Jacquie’s and Takeda’s training while Cassie and Jin helped out getting other people ready while they healed before throwing them right back into training when they were good. Raiden and Shinnok were currently busy researching ways to get their undead fighters back and bringing back those that had not been taken.

“Please be safe,” Sonya said when she dropped him off at Hanzo’s temple.

“It’s me, Sons,” Johnny replied.

“Exactly. Be safe.”

Rolling his eyes, Johnny sauntered over to the steps that lead to the courtyard where a certain Grandmaster was waiting for him.

_And tried to not think about that one secret of several secrets that would affect Hanzo’s life._

“Hanzo!” Johnny called.

“You are still acting strange,” Hanzo noted, standing with his arms crossed over his chest.

Johnny shrugged.

“Sonya fill you in?”

“Yes. Grandmaster Kuai Liang will arriving shortly. I will admit, Cage, that I do not care for handing over my secrets to a creature that may very well try to kill us regardless,” Hanzo muttered, motioning for Johnny to follow him into the temple. The students were scrambling inside. Everyone was preparing for war apparently, getting started on tougher training should they be called on to help fight The First Seed of Revenge.

“Yeah but what can we do?”

“I suppose you are right.”

Kuai Liang met them soon after, rushing to meet them in Hanzo’s main hall with snow still drifting off of him.

“I am here, fill me in.”

Johnny filled them both in, running through what Raiden and Shinnok both told him. Even brought out the amulet to show them before handing it over when Hanzo held out his hand to look at it more closely. At one point Johnny must have said something that finally startled them because they both suddenly looked attentive to what he was saying, looked at each other meaningfully and then almost awkwardly returned to listening to him talk. He kept chatting away, not giving a shit.

“So… either of of you want to help out?” Johnny finished up.

“Yes… I suspect we should do this in private, else the secret lose ‘power’,” Kuai Liang said, taking the amulet from Hanzo’s hand and meandering off.

That left the two of them alone and Johnny groaned when Hanzo’s eyes slid to him with purpose.

“You’re acting strange,” Hanzo said, a low authoritative hum in his voice that made goosebumps break out on the back of Johnny’s neck for all the wrong reasons.

“I don’t know what you mean, Hanzo,” Johnny shrugged, trying to play it off.

“There.”

“Where?”

“You said my name.”

“I’ve said your name before?”

“But you always use a nickname, some moniker before you use my name,” Hanzo pointed out and for a moment, Johnny was overwhelmed by the sheer worry and concern in Hanzo’s eyes. Directed at him. Hanzo was worried. About him.

Time to panic.

“It’s the end of the world, maybe I’m stressed!” Johnny said, throwing up his hands. Deflect, deflect, deflect. “Maybe I feel like saying your name. Hey, if you want, I can go back to the nicknames! How about Hot Sauce?”

Hanzo just looked at him like he was trying to figure out the day’s crossword puzzle, mulling over Johnny’s behaviour and probably seeing right through it. In fact it looked like the man was going to attempt to call out his behavior again when Kuai Liang came back with the amulet.

“Here,” Kuai Liang said, handing over the amulet to Hanzo. Hanzo reluctantly took it, glancing at Johnny once before pointedly looking at Kuai Liang and then wondering off again.

Johnny just sighed as Kuai Liang turned to him with the same look of worry and concern.


	7. Secret Hunting and Hiding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Mentioned character death, mentioned body horror, depressive thinking/thoughts

Kotal was definitely not thrilled by what was going on, but was with the general opinion of everyone else that the calm that he had had since the last apocalyptic event was worth fighting for. He really could not afford to lose control of the realm that he was finally gathering control over general Outworld chaos as well as the continued decline of the civil war. But that also meant that he could not be a fighter and he was very reluctant to want to lend any of his fighters, at least at the moment.

“You understand,” Kotal grumbled as Johnny stood in the man’s room. It was apparently sound proofed for various reasons, so Kotal, Erron, Ferra and Torr, Skarlet, Ermac, Reptile and even a sullen Rain could have this meeting with no prying ears.

“Yeah, I understand. We’re trying really hard to see if we can cure the Reverents to get fighters back just in case secrets aren’t enough,” Johnny said, rubbing the back of his neck. He took out the amulet. “Can I ask if…”

“How does it work?” Erron said, standing next to his boss’ side.

“You take it somewhere private, whisper it close to the gem and it apparently absorbs it. When the big assholes shows up, she’s apparently gonna eat the gem,” Johnny rambled off. Already he had forgotten the long and boring explanation that Shinnok had give him. “Apparently it won’t let anything go so once they’re said they’re secure.”

“... I cannot afford to send fighters to your side, so this will have to do,” Kotal sighed deeply. “How many is required?”

“As many as you want. Remember, if we can feed her with the secrets, no fight. Not enough and well… Raiden is pretty sure we’re gonna get our asses kicked regardless of whatever fighters we got.”

Kotal nodded gravely, understanding the severity of the situation though the frown making it obvious that Kotal was as happy about it as everyone else. 

At least Johnny was not getting another ‘what troubles you’ lecture again. Hanzo, Kuai Liang and then the two of them together until Johnny just used his amulet to get away. Now he was ninety nine percent sure that Hanzo and Kuai Liang were telling everyone else that he was acting weird because he was getting those fucking awful pity eyes from everyone that was active in their group chat. He still had several PM pings he had yet to answer because of it.

“Very well. I will go first so I can return to my duties, I ask that the rest of you contribute as well,” Kotal said.

“I don’t really have any secrets,” Skarlet noted as the rest filed out at Kotal’s bidding.

“How do you do blood magic?” Johnny offered.

“Uh… I guess I can tell it that,” Skarlet shrugged before drifting out.

Ermac was the last to drift out, throwing Kotal a concerned look before exiting with Johnny on their heels. For some reason, Johnny was not surprised when the former mummy turned to address him.

“We sense discord within you, Johnny Cage.”

That was surprising.

“I’m fine, Ermac,” Johnny sighed. “The apocalypse is kind of stressful is all. Can you blame me for being stressed out?”

“... No, of course not,” Ermac said carefully, probably smelling Johnny’s bullshit fifty yards off. “We wish to help with the research into curing the Revenants. Our communications device was not programmed with the contact information of the gods. Will you please give that information to us?”

Johnny took the offered cellphone, sending a quick heads up text to Raiden and Shinnok first, and then adding their numbers to Ermac’s phone and letting the floaty soul jar of a creature wonder off while starting to rapid fire texts off. For his part, Johnny sunk down to the ground outside and folded in on himself, not realizing how sore his feet and legs were until they started throbbing in time with his slow heartbeat. This day just kept managing to suck more and more.

Well, he was stuck in Outworld until he got the amulet back… he pulled out his phone.

Ignoring the texts, missed phone calls and chatting app, Johnny instead pulled open his gallery. He liked taking pictures of people and liked to think he had gotten pretty damn good over the years. Just little snippets of little times that made him feel better or good. People smiling, people mid doing something that made Johnny laugh or smile, selfies, that week Johnny was challenged to do the ‘kissing selfie’ challenge and won out of the group with twenty three kissing selfies (all different people). Pictures of the kids and pictures of his friends and saved pictures that his folks sent him from their sunny little farm out in the west. Little videos tucked away…

“You look better,” Kotal said, nearly scaring Johnny out of his skin and nearly sending his phone flying. Nearly. It did drop onto his boot though.

“What?” Johnny asked, snatching up his phone and tucking it away.

“... My apologies. The past few visits that you paid me, you have not looked well. For a moment, you looked… like you were happier,” Kotal said, gently holding out the amulet for Johnny to take.

“... Yeah, I haven’t been doing hot and this latest shit has not helped,” Johnny admitted through a long sigh.

“... Is there anything I can do?” Kotal offered.

“I really don’t know Kahn… just… I don’t know,” Johnny sighed, defeated.

“... Very well, inform me if that changes. I will fetch Erron back to relay what he can, please rest,” Kotal said before walking off to do just that, leaving Johnny to take out his phone again to look at pictures that gave him drops of serotonin in an endless ocean of misery and depression.

* * *

Johnny claimed he wanted to go out to the market the last fifteen minutes that his amulet needed to charge. In the throng of people, Johnny quickly slipped out of public and Kahn guard eyes and out into the jungle. Once out into the jungle, Johnny kept walking and walking and walking until he started hearing suspicious rustling in the thick foliage. When the rustling became pointed, Johnny followed it.

Eventually, it lead him to the Tarkatan camp.

“Follow,” A Tarkatan growled at him, him following without a word and keeping his head down.

The camp was bustling as it had been the few times that Johnny had gone through it. People scurrying back and forth, hushed whispers and loud yelling, people training, people cooking and doing chores. Litle a small town, though this one moved at the direction of its leaders. Speaking of which…

“Cage.”

“Hey Mileena.”

Mileena, dressed down and her long hair done up into a bun, walked over to him with her usual cat like fluidity. Tanya, her loving wife and practical shadow, was right behind her.

“To what do we owe the pleasure?” Tanya asked pleasantly.

“An update. One I think you two gal pals should hear,” Johnny said.

“To the war tent then.”

The war tent, worst name ‘general meeting area’ tent, had a bare table and a small chest of writing things to its name. And one Baraka. Johnny still did not want to ask how the fuck he was alive, and honestly it was too late in this weird friendship that he had with Mileena to bring up such a weird and likely complicated question as it was with anyone coming back from certain death.

“So… what update would be so important that you would visit our little camp?” Mileena asked.

Johnny ran them through the end of the world spiel almost robot like. For their part, the funky trio listened intently, showing just the kind of reactions everyone else had. Mileena’s eyes sometimes darted to Tanya as the story went on. When he pulled out the amulet, they all looked at each other with as much as a thrilled expression as anyone else had had.

“So… that happened,” Johnny finished lamely.

“That certainly did happen, my oh my,” Tanya said blinking owlishly.

“And we can’t exactly jump out to help,” Mileena grumbled. “Most think me dead and the Tarkatan’s scattered.”

“Yeah… and that’d be an awkward way to explain to Kotal that I’ve known where you’ve been,” Johnny sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. One of his secrets, one that he was sure Kotal would not forgive him for and honestly, Johnny saw no way of telling without starting another war with Outworld. Even if Johnny told him why...

“Hmm… If this amulet is truly safe, we can help fuel your attempt at a peaceful solution to this at least,” Tanya said, holding her hand out to let Johnny place said amulet in her palm. “And I suppose for my beloved, we can be a sort of last resort, if you need fighters?”

“Last resort, I don’t want to fucking die again,” Baraka gruffed out.

“Nor I,” Mileena grumbled.

“Of course. And we are trying to get the Reverents back, so fighters are the biggest issue right now and there still is time.”

“... If you do… manage to get the Reverents back…” Mileena awkwardly started.

“I’ll update you on your sis and mom,” Johnny answered.

“My thanks,” Mileena beamed.

Barak volunteered to go first, allowing Johnny to update Mileena and Tanya with benign details about anything else going on. Tanya asked about Rain as she always did, looking like she had just sucked on a really bad lemon when Johnny told her no good changes. Mileena wanted to know of the state of Outworld and looked like she smelled cheap bear when Johnny told her that Kotal’s changed ruling looked to be improving the realm quite a but. Talking with them always made JOhnny feel like the bearer of bad news but what could he do? He was just the messenger and and at least they seemed to thankfully uphold the ‘don’t shoot the messenger’ policy.

Tanya went next when Baraka came back and Johnny got to listen to them talk possible strategies if they were called to help Earthrealm. At one point, they realized that chances were really low that Johnny could escape into Outworld and then into the jungle if he needed them, so Baraka found one of these small communication like things? Johnny had no idea, it was a small stone that could only be broken with intent and when it was it would signal them and they would come running. Johnny found that he could slot it in the intricate metal work on the back of his teleporting amulet to keep it safe.

When it was Mileena’s turn, Tanya and Baraka talked about moving camp too.

“We’re heading to the other side of the Yellow river this time,” Tanya told Johnny after her and Baraka had hashed out details. “But not for another two weeks.”

“Alright. Everyone should be busy with the world ending so I don’t know when I’ll see you again…”

“No problem. If the peaceful situation works, just use the stone next time you need to see us and one of us will fetch you and bring you to camp,” Tanya nodded. “Though with Kotal totally assured that Mileena is dead and occasionally me going out to scramble his forces, we are needing to move often.”

“You’re keeping your promise, right?”

“Yes, I know…” Tanya sighed. “I am.”

“Not like we could fight a war with Kotal now anyway,” Baraka grumbled. “He’s rallied the realms with him and we’re still trying to find scattered Tarkatan.”

“Probably the best, given current circumstances?”

“Yeah,” Tanya and Baraka sighed together.

When Mileena came back, Johnny figured he should go before anyone got suspicious about why he was taking so long in Outworld.

“Take care,” Johnny said as he pulled out his teleporting amulet.

“You too. Do let us know how the world ending goes?” Mileena asked.

“Better than last time I hope. Last time I got maggots in my face.”

And with that, Johnny was gone.


	8. Team Netherealm Assemble

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Body horror, depression/ptsd symptoms, language
> 
> Make a move and reclaim a piece that someone once used as a pawn

Earthrealm, Outworld. Time to visit Netherrealm and see the two demon ladies.

When Johnny appeared though… he was in for a shock.

“HOLD HIM!”

“I’M TRYING!” Sareena yelled back at Ashrah as she rode on Saibot’s back as the shadow clone flailed and fought against her grip and generally ran around their lab, knocking things over and breaking shit with its flailing limbs as it seemed too panicked to do anything other then basic instinct react to getting the demoness off of it. Meanwhile, Ashrah welded a panel shut on what looked like a glass wall cell while an enraged Noob slammed against said glass walls. 

Pure chaos. Pure havoc.

“What the fuck?!” Johnny yelled as running tackled Sareena and Saibot. 

Sareena backflipped out of the way to let Johnny shoulder check Saibot, startling it long enough for him to wrestle the shadow clone into a grab. Saibot in check for a second, Sareena ran across the lab and grabbed what looked like ancient rope cords sitting off to the side and ran back to Johnny as Saibot flailed against his grip and started kicking its legs. Quickly she started tying the wriggling bastard up.

“I DON’T KNOW ASK ASHRAH!” Sareena practically sobbed as she got Saibot’s wrists into a hell tangle of a knot and then did the same to the shadow clone’s ankles. When it was tied up good and forever bound by knots that would take something sharp to get rid of them, Johnny let the flailing creature drop to the floor to thrash around like a landed fish.

That problem out of the way, they turned to Ashrah as she was extinguishing the welding torch, sighing as she sat back and watched the imprisoned Noob beat against the see through walls of his cell and probably screaming, but not a lot of noise was getting through. It sounded muted in a way that seemed purposeful

“Ashrah… what the fuck,” Johnny panted.

“My apologies, I tried to contact Sonya, and then Raiden and yourself about this but nothing was getting through and he was going to get away,” Ashrah explained.

“Ashrah…. WHY?” Johnny stressed.

“... I may have a means of curing Bi-Han. He is not like the other Revenants. Not entirely. I think he may have become his own being enough to have weakened Quan Chi’s holding just enough to allow me to break it slowly over time--” Ashrah said.

“Hold up. Noob is pure fucking evil and Bi-Han is a giant asshole but you’re not experimenting on him,” Johnny quickly added.

“No no, no experiments. Long term and low dosage healing magic and purifying spells… much like Lord Raiden and Lord Fujin’s Jensei,” Ashrah clarified. “You are right in that Noob is evil and Bi-han was… not a pleasant person but I would never experiment on them. This is merely my attempt to reclaim Bi-Han and if it works it might help cure the other Revenants.”

Johnny looked at Noob beating away at the walls of his cell and the writhing and growling Saibot flailing around on the floor still and sighed deeply. Why the fuck was all this shit happening now? They had just gotten to the good boring bits even if Johnny felt like he was going to lose his goddamn mind.

“I gotta tell Kuai Liang.”

“It might be a bit soon to--”

“I’m going to tell Kuai Liang.”

“What if I can’t cure him?” Ashrah finally relented.

“Then Kuai Liang deserves a say in his brother’s fate regardless, Ashrah. Kuai Liang has suffered enough and if there’s a chance to save his brother, the man gets to know about it. And if Bi-Han can’t be saved then he gets to know that too. No secrets, they’re how shit starts.”

“... very well. If you would please stay and hear my explanation about how I’m going to do this so you can at least pass on my carefulness to the state of Bi-Han’s being?”

“Yeah yeah, I’m not gonna start a shitshow over this, just make sure that everyone is aware that it’s happening.”

Sareena cleaned up the disaster that occurred during the struggle that had ensued to get Noob and Saibot into their hideout. Apparently there was a spell currently in place that prevented the two from slipping into one being and the ancient rope currently keeping it hogtied would keep Saibot from breaking apart into shadows or gooey ink (a trick that Noob had apparently picked up in recent years). Sareena still ended up putting the shadow in a different cell across the room when things were picked up, sighing deeply and falling to the floor tiredly.

In the meantime, Ashrah explained a bit of the magic that would go in attempting to cure Bi-Han. Much like the Jinsei could cleanse one’s body of impurities like viruses or even some levels of dark magic (but not all as Raiden’s possession by Havik’s blood magic had told them all). But slower and gentler and not as likely to be rejected by Bi-Han’s body. It would also help any possible necrosis repair itself and restore any lost flesh.

“You think he’s rotted?” Johnny grimaced.

“Johnny Cage… look at him.”

Johnny did and regretted it completely.

He was so used to knowing Bi-Han covered his face or just staring at darkness when he had seen him that he had really given up trying to figure out what he looked like after his death. He stopped ‘looking’. 

Now he saw that Noob’s mask had been lost at some point in his capture and sometime between the death of Bi-Han and the birth of Noob… a lot had been lost. His nose had rotted away, his cheeks were withered almost to the point of hugging cheekbones tightly, lips thinned and almost drawn back from his teeth to naturally bear his teeth.

“Jesus,” Johnny muttered.

“Exactly,” Ashrah sighed. “I will be attempting to fix this along with his corruption.”

“... Right… I really gotta tell Kuai Liang…”

“I’ve noticed something,” Sareena said, speaking up.

“What’s up?”

“You’re not using nicknames,” Sareena pointed out and making Johnny wince. “Not once have you called me Bean or Jumping Bean, or Ashrah ‘Lady White’ or ‘Missus’ or… anything. And you keep calling Kuai Liang by his name and not Popcicle or Polar Bear or any other nickname you have for him… are you okay?”

No, say no. You’re not okay, you fuck, say no--

“Just tired, Sareena. End of the world and all, remember?” Johnny sighed.

“There are tirednesses of the mind that can damage one’s health, Johnny Cage,” Ashrah said. “Please take care of yourself.”

“Right right…” Johnny pulled out his amulet, “Don’t hurt him, Ashrah.”

“I won’t… be safe.”

* * *

The Lin Kuei temple was dark when Johnny showed up. Time zones, probably nighttime then. Johnny buzzed Kuai Liang before storming inside, almost immediately getting a text from him to come in and find him in his room. There was a question if Johnny knew the way and he quickly assured the man that he knew well enough that his stomping steps would likely alert them if he got lost before putting his phone away.

Thankfully he did remember exactly where he had gone, letting his mind go blank and using muscle memory of the few times that he had been there. Though not exactly being quick about it. Not like it was great news or anything…

Found the door without trouble. Knocked and announced himself before pushing it open to find--

“Good evening, Johnny,” Hanzo said, the man only dressed in what Johnny assumed were sleeping pants, hanging low on his hips. He had that sexy V shape to his hips too.

Johnny forgot what he was saying, thinking, doing or… oh sweet mother of god Hanzo had a treasure trail.

“Good evening, Johnny,” Kuai Liang said as he came into the room, hair wet and wearing a similar outfit to Hanzo.

Johnny was gone. Hanzo had a dusting of hair along his chest and a thicker treasure trail. Had a bit of a dad bode like Johnny but fuck was his shoulders and arms jacked and… he was drooling, Legit drooling. He had to quickly wipe away at his mouth.

“Johnny?” Kuai Liang asked again.

“W-what?” Johnny asked stupidly.

“You said you had an important matter to discuss?”

“Uh…”

_Noob sitting in the cell, screaming behind glass walls._

“Right uh sorry… Kuai Liang this is important. Ashrah think she can cure Bi-Han,” Johnny said, feeling the strain of having to tear his eyes away from the two hot men before him to look into Kuai Liang’s eyes.

“... What?” Kuai Liang softly muttered.

“I don’t know. I showed up to see if they could contribute to the stupid gem and Ashrah was welding Noob’s cell shut and Sareena was trying to hogtie Saibot and… fuck me I forgot the explanation already… Anyway it’ll work like the Jensei works for everyone but slower and deeper. But she thinks given enough time that she can bring him back.”

“B-but how--”

Johnny tossed him his phone. “Call Ashrah, she can explain everything.”

Putting everything aside, Kuai Liang did just that, taking Johnny’s phone to the other side of the room to quietly ring up Ashrah to ask about his lost sheep of a brother. That left Johnny’s eyes to snap onto Hanzo like a magnet because _holy fuck ma, Hanzo had a treasure trail_. And goodness gracious, Johnny knew those under pec scars anywhere.

“All is well, Johnny?” Hanzo asked, regretfully making Johnny snap his eyes back up.

“Yeah. Real fun the end of the world is, Hanzo,” Johnny said.

Hanzo scrunched up his nose.

“I may have quipped in the past of your nicknames but I am swiftly missing them. You speaking like this is… unnerving.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. It is out of character for you. Coupled with the sleepless bruises underneath your eyes and I know something is deeply troubling you, my friend. It deeply worries me.”

Johnny was… touched. And not just like it was the other day when Hanzo said that he wanted Johnny to take care of himself. But… something more. And Johnny was definitely too old for it but… dammit he had a crush. His eyes quickly glanced over at Kuai Liang talking rapidly into his phone. Two of them. That hurt. He was definitely too old for crushes and especially too old to be crushing after taken men. What the fuck was wrong with him…

“Johnny?” Hanzo asked softly, getting his attention again.

“‘M fine… just tired,” Johnny lied.

“...” Hanzo looked like he wanted to say something, lips moving in a way that suggested that he was trying to carefully arrange the very much necessary to spit out words on his tongue. His hands fidgeted too, index fingers rubbing against the pads of his thumbs irritably as though they could help.

And then sighed and gave up and a hollow feeling invaded Johnny’s chest.

“Our histories have been rough and only recently have we started to patch them but… You are my friend, Johnny Cage. I do care about your wellbeing and safety. Keep those thoughts in your mind,” Hanzo settled for.

“... Okay.”

Johnny wanted to go home and sleep and not get up. Johnny wanted to be in bed with his dogs and not think. 

Johnny wanted to go home and realized that he had lost that when Cassie had moved out and something very ugly nearly punched the air from his lungs.

Johnny had no home, just a house.

“Johnny would you like to stay the night?” Kuai Liang suddenly asked, fingertips covering the phone’s speaker. Still likely speaking with Ashrah.

“No… dogs... Keep the phone..” Johnny managed out before he was walking.

And then running.

And he was outside before the two men could catch up and already had a sliver of a bright green rock out from the depths of his jacket. Emergency recharges for his amulet. He stabbed it in and the amulet was glowing and he was gone and then he was back in his house because what fucking nonsense was it for him to be calling this hollow hole his ‘home’ and he was on the floor and he was sobbing. 

Deep aching sobs that shook his body and sounded like something was dying and he guessed he technically was and fuck he was in so much pain right now. And his entire body was being shook with each sob and tears were already streaming down his face. When was the last time he sobbed he had no idea.

And he had no idea why he was doing it now.

* * *

“Has the vision changed at all?”

Shinnok was bent over his table of things, currently assembling a very intricate setting for what would likely house several gemstones for an amulet. He had a very small tool to allow him to carve several powerful spells into the surface and magnifying glass on a swiveling base to allow him such needed detail.

“... Pieces. But the ending has remained the same so far,” Raiden said as he looked in the distance, a book in his hand forgotten as he likely got lost in his ability. “A bruised and bloodied Johnny Cage facing the creature alone.”

“Mr. Cage always had this thing for heroics… but a suicidal fight against a creature that not even the Elder Gods understand?”

“Which is why I am worried, my dearest former rival. Johnny Cage has grown over the years, he is more rational and well grounded then in his youth. Why he would face certain death troubles me to no end. And the fact that he seems to be shutting down now, showing signs of deepening depression and post traumatic stress disorder now of all times… I worry that he faces certain death knowingly.”

“... We will not let this future come to pass, Raiden. What besides Johnny has changed?”

“Sareena, Ashrah and Bi-Han. I see them but they are downed, injured.”

“Lovely. Anything else?”

“Nothing so far. The choices that would lead us there are not yet made… I am going to contact Johnny Cage.”

Raiden had Johnny number saved into his phone. As much as anyone liked to say he was stiff and boring, Johnny’s contact information was saved under ‘Fave Cage’. One day Raiden would tell him of course, but… in a few years when his ego had flattened out some more.

The other end picked up almost immediately.

“Jo--”

“Lord Raiden,” Kuai Liang answered.

“Kuai Liang? Why are you answering Johnny’s phone?” Raiden asked and immediately getting Shinnok’s attention. Shinnok dematerialized from his table and reformed by Raiden's side, Raiden leaning down and turning the phone just slightly so that they could both hear this.

“He was allowing me to use his phone to contact Ashrah. She has my brother… she may have a means of curing him.”

So… the vision was true then? Raiden would keep that to himself.

“But he ran off soon after.”

“I see… Allow me to send Cassandra his way. If he walked away from even you, he is likely upset over something tied to you. For now, give him space… There is something wrong with Johnny and it must be dealt with delicately but swiftly.”

“I agree. Please... please keep us posted, we worry.”

“Will do.”

Raiden hung up and dialed up ‘God-Daughter’ in his contacts.

“Cassandra, pardon my lateness in calling but I am in dire need of your aid.”


	9. Chaos and Worry Warts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Mentions of ptsd/depression, mentioned character death, mentioned gore, mentioned Hanzo Hasashi/Kuai Liang
> 
> Mischief unmanaged

“If she’s above the Elder Gods then she’s a Titan. Not sure what Raiden’s on about. Maybe he’s confused, I hear he just stripped his mind of that silly corruption that made him Dark Raiden. He still might be recovering from that if he can’t even remember Titans.”

“I’d rather not think of how one of our strongest fighters might not be up to snuff, Havik.”

Havik nodded, adjusting himself in his seat in his prison cell. Actually pretty cushy considering that it was a long term, high security prison cell. But considering that they were probably trying to make the Cleric of Chaos less oreny and less likely to escape, it was probably for the best.

“In any case. She’s just a Titan. And we’ve seen Elder Gods get defeated, hell, you helped defeat one. If there’s a way, there is a way. Nothing is all powerful.”

“Just a Titan, he says,” Johnny muttered, “I have to maybe fight that Titan, Havik.”

Havik cackled, that high key and sharp cackle. That cackle that was Havik’s personality in a single sound.

“I know, you get all the fun and I’m still stuck in here BECAUSE SOMEONE DOESN’T HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR!”

The last bit was aimed at Hotaru not too far away, bent over a desk and frowning at several parchments of paper. Johnny was not sure what kind of language that he was writing in, it looked similar to some Chinese that Johnny knew, but slightly off. Something that Johnny found out about the different realms were that they had similar languages to Earthrealm and her history but always slightly off. Fascinating if extremely strange. 

Hotaru frowned harder at the sound of Havik’s voice and kept at his work. He probably learned that it was best to starve Havik of attention to get him to behave.

“Bah!” Havik scoffed.

“Havik, maybe you shouldn’t provoke your jailer?” Johnny suggested.

“He’s a big softie. And honestly too good of a person even on a anatomical level to do anything like hurt a prisoner,” Havik said with a dramatic eye roll. “Hell, even with my arrest, the worst I got were bruises from my own flailing and nothing he did.”

“Why did he arrest you again?”

“Well you see… after Chaosrealm spat me back out after that uh… thing with trying to summon Shinnok--”

“Because not even death would clear him of his crimes of trying to bring back the fallen Elder God, Shinnok,” Hotaru snapped suddenly, paying more attention to them then he had first let on. “And all the terrible things that happened during which.”

“Wait, I thought we got clear of that because he was being possessed by The One Being?” Johnny asked.

“On the sole charge of his actions that almost lead to Shinnok being resummoned. But he still needs to pay for the deaths that occurred during which.”

“Which is fair and thus why I haven’t tried to escape,” Havik shrugged.

“You’re taking ‘possession by The One Being ruined my entire goddamn life’ thing a bit lightly,” Johnny noted.

“Eh. Why get hung up about it? I got a second chance and I am gonna use it, Johnny,” Haviks shrugged oh so casually.

“I really need your chill, Havik,” Johnny sighed loudly.

“I would suggest R&R but given the current circumstances…”

“Yeah, not the greatest timing for me to break down, huh… speaking of which, there’s probably several angry and or worried people at my house right now looking for me. And I’ve kept you being alive under tight wraps and I’d rather keep it that way. Anyone hearing you alive is bound to cause a absolute shitstorm,” Johnny sighed as he stood.

“Aww… five more minutes? No one but Sir Grumps talks to me nowadays,” Havik pouted.

“Maybe another time. Especially if Hotaru can get the paperwork through to let me fuel the gem from Orderrealm, I’ll drop by again,” Johnny said before throwing caution to the wind and sticking his hand through the bars of the cell. Before Hotaru could throw a fit about it, Havik jumped up to grab Johnny’s hand and squeeze it. Poor guy probably did not have a lot of physical contact.

“Do come again,” Havik grinned. 

For a moment that handsome face ‘glitched’ and Johnny saw the bare lower half of his skull, grinning that demented smile that Johnny still saw in dark nightmares about his blood being poison and Takeda’s scared face as he slid down into his signature Pelvis Breaker. The bare bones were still raw and red and dripping with unending gore. 

“ _Godslayer._ ”

And then it was gone, replaced with the no longer corrupted, no longer possesed Havik’s fleshy face and that goofy smartass smile.

“I’ll try.”

“I’ll have the paperwork through before too long,” Hotaru said as Johnny turned while digging out his amulet. “Orderrealm requires order in all aspects but we understand that this is a grave situation.”

“You’re helping is the big thing right now. Now one’s gonna panic for at least another month,” Johnny said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I assume we are keeping the ruse that Orderrealm reached out to work with Special Forces to keep our.. Mutual friend out of things?”

“Yeah. We don’t need a big ‘oh by the way they’re alive’ bomb right now. Maybe after shit calms down.”

Hotaru nodding was the last thing Johnny saw before he was teleporting back into his house.

* * *

Surprise, surprise, the first thing that Johnny came back too was someone banging on his door and Marshmallow wagging her stumpy tail because she knew who it was. Sighing loudly, Johnny rubbed the back of his neck irritably as he opened the door to his daughter standing there and looking frazzled, arm raised as though to keep beating on his door.

“... Where have you been?”

“Sleeping.”

“Bullshit! I’ve been beating on your door for an hour! Where have you been?!” Cassie snapped.

“... I went to see Hotaru in Orderrealm.”

“You scared me!” Cassie yelled, punching his shoulder. Damn she had a hook on her. “Raiden called me in the middle of the night! Saying that you just fucking booked it from Grandmaster Kuai Liang’s temple! That you left your phone there! And you’ve already been acting weird!”

“...I’m sorry.”

“You’re a real jackass sometimes, you know that?” Cassie huffed, anger obviously cooled.

“Yeah, your mother divorced me over it,” He said flatly.

Cassie flinched.

“Sorry, I just… I worry about you, you know,” She muttered, picking at her arm absently. A nervous habit of hers since she was a kid. She still had faded little spots of scars from it. Johnny reached out and gently swatted her hand away on habit.

“I know kid. But seriously I’m fine. Lately it’s just been hell is all,” Johnny sighed before tipping Cassie’s face up by her chin, so he could look at her eye. 

The bruised skin was fading from purple to an ugly yellow along the edges so that meant it was healing up good. Her eyelids were still a bit puffy and it looked like she was squinting slightly still because of it. But the dark purples were lightening up a bit.

“It look bad?” She asked.

“It looks better.”

Cassie grunted.

“So… now that that moment of terror is over, how about some breakfast?”

“Sure.”

He took a quick shower while Cassie played with the dogs and tossed on clean clothes. Absently he looked for his phone and then groaned when he realized that it was still at the Lin Kuei temple. And he really, really did not want to go back there after his little freak out. He wondered if Sonya would kill him for requisitioning another one or if he could bribe someone to get it for him without it looking suspicious.

Sighing, he went back downstairs and joined Cassie as they walked outside, Johnny locking the door behind them, and strolling down the street.

“So… do you want to talk about it?”

“... I realized part way into the conversation that I haven’t really had a home since you moved out,” Johnny admitted. If nothing else he knew he could be honest with Cassie and not have her judge him. She was a good kid, he raised her well.

“Aww, dad,” Cassie said.

“I’m just lonely, Cassie. I’m a grown man, I can make it through,” He shrugged.

“Still… have you tried dating anyone recently?”

“Not really.”

“Didn’t you and Kenshi have a thing going on?”

“Nah. Kenshi’s a good man and would make excellent boyfriend material, but not my type of guy.”

“Okay… man that’d be weird. If you and Kenshi became a thing, Takeda would be my brother-in-law and with him and Jacqui engaged that would make her my sister-in-law…”

“And since you two dated a bit before her and Takeda became a thing that’d be really weird?” Johnny chuckled.

“IT WOULD BE THE WORST!” Cassie groaned.

Johnny chuckled softly, already feeling a hell of a lot better than before.

Cassie’s phone buzzed and she pulled it out to frown at it deeply. After tapping away at it for a second, she hummed softly.

“It cool if Jac, Tech and Jin join us? Or do you just want to hang out with me for a bit?”

“I don’t mind hanging out with you kids. I probably… worried a few people…”

“Yeah. We were fucking scared shitless when Raiden called me. You don’t go AWOL, it’s not your style,” Cassie said. “You got people that worry about you, dad. And I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Hell, mom worries about you all the time, she’s just… ya know… shit about showing it.”

“I know.”

They hit up the local doughnut shop that they loved. Jacqui, Takeda and Jin joined them soon after, thankfully not saying anything about Johnny’s bout of weakness and just chattering idly.

“I can’t wait to get this damn thing off, it’s starting to itch,” Jin groaned, frowning at his cast and sling.

“Don’t scratch it just yet. Let it heal more,” Johnny said.

“I know,” Jin groaned louder.

“Speaking of highly unpleasant things, hey Takeda? Can I ask if you’d go grab my phone from Hanzo or Kuai Liang?” Johnny asked.

“Sure. Should probably find out who has it…”

Takeda took out his phone and tilted his phone Johnny’s way as he texted.

[Earthrealm Alliance Chat]

Takeda: Alright who has Mr. Cage’s phone?  
Takeda: Also Mr. Cage is asking me to say ‘if anyone has looked through my texting history I will be joining the dark side’  
Hanzo: I have it.  
Takeda: I’ll be by later to grab it, grandmaster  
Hanzo: I would prefer if Johnny came to grab it.

Johnny felt every muscle lock up tight.

Takeda: Why can’t I just get it?  
Hanzo: You need to focus on your training, fighting a Titan is a no trivial task.

“He’s not gonna give it up,” Takeda said.

“Oh come on, I need a break,” Johnny muttered.

“You wanna try and convince him?” Takeda asked.

Eagerly taking up the phone, Johnny set Hanzo a private message.

[PM from Takeda to Hanzo: Hey hanzo it’s Johnny, can I please please please send Takeda to grab my phone?]  
[PM from Hanzo to Takeda: No.]  
[PM from Takeda to Hanzo: Come on, I freaked out on you and I don’t think I can face you right now]  
[PM from Hanzo to Takeda: Johnny, I’m worried.]  
[PM from Takeda to Hanzo: Fine.]

[PM from Takeda to Sonya: Hey Sonya it’s me Johnny, I broke my phone, can you disable the other one and put in an order for a new one?]  
[PM from Sonya to Takeda: I know what happened to your other phone.]  
[PM from Takeda to Sonya: Please.]  
[PM from Sonya to Takeda: … you are acting weird.]  
[PM from Sonya to Takeda: Done.]  
[PM from Takeda to Sonya: Thanks Sonya.]

Johnny handed Takeda back his phone and suddenly felt like shit again.

[PM from Hanzo to Takeda: Johnny?]  
[PM from Takeda to Hanzo: Takeda, looks like he’s just getting a new phone :T ]  
[PM from Takeda to Hanzo: What happened last night?]  
[PM from Hanzo to Takeda: Nothing you need to worry about. Continue with your training.]

* * *

Hanzo grunted as he turned off his phone.

“Is Johnny coming back over?” Kuai Liang asked.

“He chose to disable his phone and get a new one,” Hanzo grumbled.

“... What was said to him to make him act like this?” Kuai Liang sighed, pulling out Johnny’s phone and frowning when it was turned on and showed that it was back to defaults and indeed stripped. “Did you say something last night?”

“I just said that I worried over him because he’s my friend, which both are true,” Hanzo muttered, frowning as he thought.

“How strange… do you think he was acting strange because of… us?” Kuai Liang suggested almost embarrassedly.

“Why would he be bothered?” Hanzo asked.

“I do not know. Perhaps I am grasping at the metaphorical straws because I cannot think of anything that we could have done that would have bothered him enough for him to flee,” Kuai Liang sighed.

“... I feel terrible that we cannot help him,” Hanzo sighed. “He’s showing signs of post traumatic stress. And yet…”

“I know. But what can we do given current circumstances?”

“I will keep worrying and looking after him of course,” Hanzo said firmly.

“You…” Kuai Liang grinned as he crossed the distance between them to kiss Hanzo’s forehead, “Are such a good man.”

“You inspire me,” Hanzo grinned back.

“Now. We may harp on the young ones for training but we need to do so as well. It’s not everyday someone fights a Titan.”


	10. Dark Visions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Mentions of subscorp, displays of PTSD and other mental illnesses
> 
> This just keeps getting worse and worse and people are getting tired of Johnny's running

Johnny threw himself into training after the cell phone incident.

Everyone was muttering about his strange behavior now. Johnny often had the misfortune to hear people whispering about when they thought that he was out of earshot or did not think that he would interrupt, when he came into the chatroom when people thought that he was ignoring his phone. And all valid points around, Johnny hardly did anything but train and go home and sleep so he was more akin to a ghost and he honestly only checked his phone briefly to get rid of the irritating unread message notifications.

He just… did not have the strength to face anyone.

How could he? The cracks were showing in the mask. He was tripping on stage. People were starting to break through Johnny Cage and getting at the soft weak center that he had started to hide like a life or death embarrassing secret. Trapped within a chest, locked up tight, chained shut, weighed down and thrown into a lake, sort of hidden. And yet… here it was, floating to the surface because the chains had snapped and the lock was rusting and falling apart. Too much unchecked water and gods knew what happened to the contents after being submerged for so long.

It was time to take a breather, refocus. Rebuild the mask, steady his feet, fill in the cracks. When this crisis was over, Johnny swore to take his dogs out to farm land and just be a lonely old crotchy farmer until he died. No one to worry, no one to please, no one to ache over--

“Fuck.”

Johnny had been sitting in an ice bath after a really hard bout of training while Marshmallow noisily chased wayward ice cubes across the floor. Peaches was in the other room, probably mindlessly watching TV like the weird dog liked to do. He watched his dog chase around stray ice cubes for a minute, sighing as he felt his mood drop from the already depressing level that it was at.

He really was pining after taken men. Men that were taken with each other, even. And yeah sure, Johnny was more than happy to admit that he was polyamorous, but that did not mean Kuai Liang or Hanzo were… or that they were interested in him. At all. And maybe that was why it hurt so much. Both men were far out of his league and he felt like he was shooting for the sun. And he hated how they both made his heart hammer and made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside and junk and…

“You’ll always love me, right smushy baby?” Johnny said, twisting so he could lean out the side of his tub. Marshmallow waddled over to him to butt against his hand for head rubs, which he happily gave to the puppy. She licked his cold fingers and gave him that loveable bulldog smile.

“What I thought…”

His phone started going off in the other room. Sighing, as he realized that no one was calling him these days unless it was the end of the world news, he got up out of the tub and just padded naked and dripping ice water out of the downstairs bathroom and up to his upstairs bedroom. His phone was still, unfortunately, ringing on the nightstand where Johnny had left it.

The god name on the screen did not bode well.

“Jesus christ, Raiden, what the fuck now?” Johnny groaned as he answered.

“Not good news.”

* * *

“Are you sure?” Johnny asked.

“Absolutely,” Kenshi sighed for the third time, “Me and Hanzo worked everything out at this point.”

“Then why is Raiden telling us he’s got a vision of you two entering a death battle?” Sonya asked.

They were in one of the meeting rooms on the Special Forces base. Kenshi, sitting on the other side of the table, looked exhausted as Sonya and Johnny both looked and sounded. Everyone was tired because everyone was trying everything to make sure that this ‘feast of secrets’ was plentiful enough or that everyone was trained enough to take on a Titan. Everyone was tired. Too tired to deal with this shit.

“Raiden?” Johnny asked.

“I see you two fighting, Kenshi,” Raiden said, off to the side and pacing anxiously, “You are fighting with intent on killing, I can see it in the way you two move. Also before the vision cuts out, you are stabbing at him and he will not be able to block it.”

“I promise, I would never harm Hanzo,” Kenshi stressed. “He is a near and dear friend and pretty much another father to Takeda. Why would I harm him?”

“Well between now and some point in the future, something happens to make you two try and kill one another,” Sonya sighed, rubbing her face angrily.

“I can’t imagine what,” Kenshi said, completely and utterly truthfully.

“Well… what are we going to do? It’s obvious that something big and ugly is going to start breaking us apart between now and the fight with the Titan,” Johnny offered.

“Right now the best we can do without going overboard and repeating the mistakes of the past is to make sure that there is neutral parties keeping an eye on both Kenshi and Grandmaster Hasashi,” Raiden said. “We need two people to volunteer to remain with each and report when something happens.”

“Preferably people we won’t be relying on to be trump cards in the fight if it comes to it,” Sonya said before turning to look at Johnny and he felt his heart turned to ice. “You get along with Hanzo better--”

“No.”

“Johnny--”

“No.”

“Serio--”

“No! End of discussion!” Johnny snapped, shoving himself out of his chair and storming out of the room.

Much to his sudden spike of annoyance, two pairs of feet came storming after him, a hand landing on his bicep telling him that one was a seven foot god of lightning. One that tightened his fingers as he undoubtedly realized that that was Johnny’s dominant arm and also the side that he kept his teleporting amulet. No way Johnny’s reflexes could beat Raiden’s if he had to reach around himself for it. No escape, and the sudden dread made him from tense to weak in Raiden’s grasp.

“What troubles you, Johnny Cage?”

“Stop asking me, I don’t know.”

“Johnny--” Kenshi started.

“And no, I don’t want you to go rooting around in my head either, Kenshi,” Johnny said before yanking his arm free from Raiden’s grasp. “And I’m not doing babysitting duty. Get someone else.”

“... My dearest apologies, Johnny Cage. But I just realized how thick your stubborn jackass skull is.”

“Did you just call me a jackass, Raiden--”

A spark of static discharge later and Johnny found himself hunched over on the ground, dizzy and sick to his stomach as fuck and wondering what the fuck happened. It took two seconds to break through the fog of ‘holy fuck the world is spinning at terminal velocity’ to realize that he had been teleported abruptly. Humans never could withstand teleporting without bracing themselves. And that was what Raiden just did to him.

“You asshole…” Johnny wheezed before giving in and vomiting. After spitting up anything lingering, he managed to spit out more wrathful words. “Fucking…”

“Lord Raiden?”

Johnny was far too dizzy and sick to have much of a reaction to hearing Kuai Liang’s voice. He was more focused on trying to not be sick again and taking in long, measured breaths in through the nose and then out his mouth to calm his spinning head.

“My apologies for the abrupt visit, grandmasters,” Raiden said, taking advantage of Johnny’s dizziness and yanking his teleporting amulet out of his pocket. “Allow me to debrief you.”

By the time Johnny got his ups and his downs back to being sorted out, Raiden had explained the situation to Kuai Liang and a very quiet Hanzo and then told them why Johnny was there. And by the time Johnny could put sentences together coherently, Raiden was already teleporting away.

“Are you alright, Johnny?” Kuai Liang asked as he stepped over to Johnny’s side to help him up. Johnny swatted his hands away.

“Fuckin’ peachy.”

He managed to stand on his own, pulling out his phone and frowning at the screen. He managed to tap out Sonya’s number.

“Sonya, come save me.”

“Not until we find a replacement, Johnny. Three days at most, I promise.”

“I thought you were done being the evil ex-wife?”

“...I’m trying Johnny.”

“... I know. Fine.”

He hung up before drawing in a deep breath and turning to face Kuai Liang. And Hanzo standing next to him. Both were shooting him worried looks.

“... It’s been a rough week.”

* * *

Three days of being stuck watching over Hanzo was… it was tough.

If Johnny was pining over the two of them before, it got even worse as he was around them on their normal days. There was just something so achingly… domestic about watching Hanzo and Kuai Liang interact and interact with their students. So… average and normal and human about it and Johnny, being the absolutely hopeless and dumb as fuck romantic that he was, was just enamored with the every day Hanzo and Kuai Liang.

They had this achingly familiarity with the students, each other, each other’s students. They both used to quip about Johnny’s unending nicknames, but they knew all the nicknames of the students and more than a few times, Johnny heard the call each other honeyed nicknames. ‘My love, my treasure, my sweetheart’. It just made Johnny ache more. Especially when someone cracked a bad nickname like Johnny used to do.

“Sonya, please,” Johnny pleaded to Sonya over the phone at the end of day three, sitting in his cot with the other students because there was no way in hell he was bunking with Kuai Liang and Hanzo. Most other students were out like lights and dead to the world, Johnny having learned that after one accident stumbling from the bathroom and tripping over two students that had not woken up.

“I know, Johnny. But everyone is busy with training for the fight ot gathering secrets. And you do get along best with Grandmaster Hasashi.”

“Why couldn’t Kuai Liang watch him?”

“Remember Quan Chi?”

“...Right. Can’t believe I’m the goddamn ‘stupid shit’ filter.”

“You grew up. Can’t help it.”

“Ugh.”

“I thought you liked hanging out with Hasashi and Kuai Liang. What’s been up with you lately, Johnny?”

“I’m tired. And I’m lonely. And I ain’t got nothin’, Sonya,” Johnny gritted out.

“... You have Cassie. You have me, as your friend. You have your job at Special Forces?”

“Cassie’s moved out and more focused on getting your approval, which she ain’t getting based on how hard she keeps fucking trying. And sure, we can talk to one another but we can’t talk long or we start fucking fighting again, Sonya. And I HATE my job at Special Forces. I NEVER LIKED IT! I only did it so I could be around you and we all saw how that ended!”

Sonya was quiet on the other line, Johnny could still hear her breathing so he knew that she had no hung up on him. But honestly he had just worked himself into a fury and could not stand to be near her.

“Bye.”

He hung up, throwing his phone into his bag and marching outside.

Thankfully, he was at the Shirai-Ryu temple so the outside was not below freezing at night times. So, wearing a tank top and sweatpants and no shoes, Johnny could pad a distance away from the temple, making sure that he was a ways away. Putting his back to the temple, Johnny yelled obscenities into the night sky before growing tired and just falling to his ass.

“... Do we need to be concerned?”

“No,” Johnny snapped, not turning to address the two men standing behind him.

“Johnny,” Hanzo tried.

“I’m fine. Give me space.”

Ice grew up from the ground and caught his ankles and cemented them there. He groaned as Hanzo sat down next to him on one side and Kuai Liang on the other side.

“... I was not aware you could string together ‘bitch’, ‘bastard’ and ‘asshole’ in those combinations,” Hanzo noted after a moment.

“I’m creative,” Johnny deadpanned.

“... You can’t get creative about avoiding your mental health,” Kuai Liang said.

“Try me.”

“Johnny, we’re worried.”

“... ‘m fine.”

A heavy cool hand landed on his shoulder and Johnny felt a thing flush of stream about feeling the absolute rush of giddiness that washed over him from the casual touch. Or how when Hanzo hesitantly laid a hand on his shoulder and he felt completely a drift on cloud nine. 

“We worry about you. You are our friend and therefore we care about you. We will repeat this until it breaks through your stubborn thick skull.”

“... ‘kay… Can I get free of this ice, it’s fucking cold and I don’t want get freezer burn.”

Kuai Liang slung his arm around Johnny’s shoulders AND THEN undid the ice, leaving Johnny trying to ignore the absolute rush of serotonin flooding his system as he was forced to remain seated there.

His mind gave up when Hanzo joined the arm slinging.


	11. No More Heroes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Mentions of gore, violence, body horror, PTSD symptoms, language, mentioned character death
> 
> No more heroes and those that remain are hesitant to call themselves such

Raiden’s vision disappeared. He had no time to think before a vision was taking over, his clairvoyance demanding to know this troubling possible future.

A cave, craggily, dead and dried brown earth. A certain heat from an unknown source made it like an oven. Raiden’s mouth was dry and his breathing was difficult. Sweat dripped down his body from both the heat and the oppressive exhaustion that was dragging like physical weights on his joints. Blood was dripping from his broken nose and split lip but quickly dried against his skin with the heat.

_”We’re losing!”_

He was pulling Shinnok to his feet. The pale fallen Elder God looked as worn as he felt. Pale skin dripping a thin excuse of a layer of sweat, mouth open as he panted in pained strained breaths. He clutched his side. Broken ribs. Healing sluggishly because they were still fighting and still losing and still throwing themselves at this enemy and still falling one by one. Until they all fell down. Down her gullet. Into the black void of her stomach.

_”We must keep this up!”_

Kabal and Stryker were fighting back to back against a blurry and shapeless enemy, hook swords and an electrified baton never ceasing glittering arches through the air. Sonya and Jax were dried of bullets and resorting to fist fighting their enemies, Sonya’s knuckles broken and bleeding and her face reading of nothing but crazed pain as she kept lashing out at her enemy. Bi-Han and Saibot’s limbs never ceased moving, the sickle getting thrown back and forth with fluid relentless fury.

_”We need to pull back, she’s killing us!”_

Raiden looked around desperately and noted that Jin was covering Jacqui and Takeda’s retreat, Takeda was heaving a bloodied and unconscious Jacqui as Jin’s arrow whistled through their air with little pause between notes. Cassie was down on the ground, her leg having a very unnatural bend to it, shooting at shapeless enemies helplessly, wearing the same crazed pain visage as her mother but with her father’s furious eyes.

_”If we pull back, she consumes the realm!”_

Raiden looked around for Johnny. His powers, bred and refined and tuned and made sharp and deadly and lethal, had been made such to kill gods. To fight toe to toe with gods. Johnny’s human nature was the only thing standing in the way of doing such. If Raiden could somehow aid Johnny then even a fight with a Titan should not have been--

His eyes found Chaos. Havik, bleeding and gushing blackness from his being, black streams raining from his ears, nose, mouth, eyes, from within his clothing and down through his hair. Digging fingers into his own sternum, tearing and ripping flesh, pulling out a red dagger that dripped thick and rotted gore. The corrupted dagger.

Kamidogu.

_”Johnny!”_

The black being held out the dagger to Johnny.

_”Wield my sibling, godslayer. Put yourself into debt with me. But save everyone. Wield my sibling, godslayer and hold true to the power that sings in your veins.”_

_”Johnny!”_

A broken and bleeding pair. Grandmaster Hasashi and Grandmaster Kuai Liang. Kuai Liang was holding up Hanzo, their eyes terrified as the two cried out to Johnny.

Johnny looked at the dagger… and then wrapped his fingers around the hilt, the power stabbing deep into all his veins and beginning the corruption of every ounce of vital liquid. His eyes glowed red and a monster wore Johnny’s visage in a twisted and malice filled smile. HIs godslayer powers oozed as bright red and violent red off of his being as he held the knife against his throat.

_”No more heroes.”_

And then nothingness.

Raiden came out of his vision weeping, the dry and hot air still on his tongue and the exhaustion still pulling on his being. He still saw their faces, the pain, the misery and hopelessness as they fought to past the last breath. The blurry enemies that had yet to take shape. The oppressive presence of the Titan with a black voice in her being that demanded to be filled with everything.

“Raiden, what happened? What did you see?” Shinnok asked, gently lifting his face to look at him.

“Failure.”

* * *

“Yes I am sure. Havik’s head was crushed underneath Quan Chi’s heel. I made sure that he was dead before I left the Netherrealm,” Hanzo said patiently to Raiden as they stood in the fire gardens.

Johnny was watching from a distance. Something was up and he knew that, but honestly with so many people hawk eyeing him right now, was in no mood to suddenly get all that attention aimed at him. So he had to contend with eavesdropping what he could.

“... I see,” Raiden hummed.

“Why do you ask?”

“I saw another vision. Something troubling happened during it and I had to know…”

“What did you see, Raiden?”

“... Havik. He’s alive. He’s being possessed by something dangerous. And he has a Kamidogu in his ribcage,” Raiden sighed deeply. “He offers it to Johnny and… Johnny takes it and is possessed… he has the knife against his throat…”

Hanzo looked horrified. Rightly so, Johnny figured.

“I don’t see what happens next, the vision ended. But this, even if it is just the slimmest of possibilities, was something that I have to look into myself,” Raiden sighed. There were actual bags underneath his eyes, dark enough to make his glowing blue eyes look glowing white. Sick and tired and unfitting of the lord of thunder and protector of Earthrealm. “I need to know if Havik is truly dead, at least at the moment.”

“I assure you, Raiden. I saw Havik’s severed head be crushed. And I would not allow him to tempt Johnny with such power,” Hanzo said.

“... My thanks, Grandmaster Hasashi,” Raiden sighed.

Johnny got up, hopping up and over the fence that he had been laying on to approach Raiden himself.

“Hey Raiden.”

“Greeting Johnny. I--”

“Can I have my amulet back? Just real quick. I doubt anyone’s checked up on Orderrealm to see if they got through all the red tape bullshit to let us have some of their secrets.”

“I… no I don’t believe so. Sadly, you are the one that made the connection with Orderrealm,” Raiden said, strangely shaken up by Johnny. “But for the moment--”

“Hey, you’re here. And I’m sure you’re not really partial to either Kenshi or Hanzo. And like I said, just real quick. I’ll burn one of those quick recharges that Shinnok gave me to pop in and out, I promise.”

Raiden seem very confused by Johnny’s sudden attitude change. But, even more strangely, he relented and pulled the amulet out of his pocket and pressed it into Johnny’s hand.

“If you are not back in thirty minutes…” Hanzo warned.

“I’ll be back,” Johnny said simply before teleporting.

* * *

Hotaru lead him to Havik’s cell before telling him that he had something to attend to.

“I trust you alone with him. I will be back as soon as I can.”

“I’ve got thirty minutes before Raiden tears through after me.”

“I will be back in twenty.”

Hotaru left and Johnny approached Havik’s cell.

“Johnny!”

“I don’t want to talk to _you_.”

Havik’s face twitched for a moment and then that human face melted into his half ripped off one. A certain kind of pressure leaked into the air and it felt like every breath was cut in half. Black and inky eyes looked to him as gore dripped down his mauled face.

“ _Godslayer._ ”

“We gotta talk. Raiden had a vision. You interfere with this battle with this Titan,” Johnny said.

“ _That would mean that someone feels like they need Havik to fight. Is your fighting force really that terrible that you must include him?_ ”

“I don’t know. But that’s not the fucked up part. Apparently you go ahead and reveal yourself by taking out one of your siblings from where you got them stuck inside Havik’s chest and offer one to me.”

“ _Why would I suffer another fool that owes me a blood debt? I already have Havik paying off his by wielding me and hiding my siblings below his heart… do you take it?_ ”

“Yeah. Apparently the vision cut off right as I have it against my throat.”

“ _Strange. Very strange. Your fight must truly be lost if I offer salvation in the form of damnation. After all, I quite enjoy my sentience and my being. A Titan that consumes realities would hamper that. Very strange. And you grow corrupted apparently. But that happens. The ‘god tools’ are meant for god hands. If a creature that is not a god wields them, power corrupts and destroys their minds._ ”

“Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

“ _Exactly. Very strange. Though it makes sense. Your powers give you the ability to have something of a fair fight with a god. Even corrupted, the power that would fuel you would definitely give you the ability to fight fairly with a Titan. Backed into a corner, it would be the ‘nuclear’ option that would ensure victory._ ”

Johnny sighed.

“ _But as you have said before. Raiden’s visions are ‘what ifs’ based on current events. Change those events and see what the thunder god says next._ ”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“ _It does nothing but waste time and energy to fret over ‘what ifs’ and ‘maybes’, godslayer._ ”

“Says you, fucking Kamidogu,” Johnny snapped.

The seventh Kamidogu frowned using Havik’s face. Actually, it outright glared. But with Havik trapped in his cell and the Kamidogu trapped to Havik’s being until Havik paid for corrupting the other Kamidogu stored within his chest, it could do nothing about the sleight.

“I’m out. Better let Havik have control back before Hotaru comes back,” Johnny said unkindly.

“ _Take care, godslayer. Heedlessly throwing your anger shall do nothing but destroy all you love._ ”

“That a threat?”

They heard footsteps and the seventh Kamidogu let Havik take control again, the man breathing out harshly as the illusions vanished. Havik threw a very concerned look at Johnny only for Johnny to look ahead without looking at him.

Well… shit.

* * *

Ermac and Shinnok stood over a table. Several jars of mysterious liquid bubbled and glowed ominously and stank of several otherworldly stenches that only Shinnok would know.

“Alchemy and necromancy and god magic and soul magic.”

Shinnok took a jar that looked like it was filled with a cherry red liquid and poured it into a jar filled halfway with a dull and boring blue gel. At first the mix split, unable to mix, and then Ermac waved a glowing green hand and the mix violently and suddenly churned in its container. It made a deeply upsetting maroon liquid that radiated a violently black cherry color aura.

“And perhaps we can break this contract.”

Shinnok added a glowing green liquid and the previous mixture into a much larger pot. The mixture churned by itself in a graceful swirl before mixing and turning into a vivid purple color that smelled of fresh godhood and bled blue aura. It made Shinnok frown deeply before he added the last ingredient, something that Raiden had to provide. A lock of black hair. The mixture turned into grey mush almost instantly.

“Dammit.”

The pot suddenly lurched and the mixture turned a bright and vivid orange and looked much like lava. The two looked at it before Shinnok broke into a small smirk.

“Success, finally.”

“We will not know until it is tested,” Ermac pointed out.

“Then I guess we shall have to test it. But what fool is hardy enough to storm Netherrealm to force Liu Kang to drink this?” Shinnok hummed.

“We will need to try to see if it actually works,” Ermac pointed out.

“Well… let’s inform the others of our attempt to keep Quan Chi dead. Hopefully this will work,” Shinnok sighed as he reached out to Raiden’s mind.

_Raiden?_

Shinnok frowned at the silence.

_Raiden?_

_My apologies, Johnny has just returned from Orderrealm with no new news. What do you require?_

_We have made an attempt at the potion that Ermac suggested, we are unsure if the product works without a test though…_

_We shall have too--_

Johnny suddenly teleported into the room.

“Mr. Cage?” Shinnok asked.

“That the potion?” Johnny asked, pointing at the neatly corked bottle.

“Yes--”

Johnny grabbed it, held his amulet aloft, and then teleported again. When Shinnok reached out to the magic, he read exactly where the man had gone.

Netherrealm.


	12. The actor and Hero

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Language, violence, blood
> 
> Because he's the hero of the story and I? I am but a humble actor.

Johnny’s head was completely and horrifyingly blank. His face too. Completely lax and at ease with no expression to be seen. Had someone seen that and seen what he was doing, they would have thought him completely and utterly mad.

But his heart was hammering against the inside of his ribs, beating against the bone cage that it was trapped in. Rattling the bars until Johnny was sure that he would feel sore from the base of his throat to just above his belly when the adrenaline wore off. Maybe knock a few years off his already stressed to Netherrealm and back heart and body.

But how could one expect one to react to storming through the Revenant castle and currently engaged in deadly kombat with the Revenants coming at them?

Johnny ducked out of the way of Stryker’s bullets, fluidly moving up and out of the way before lashing out with his foot and kicking the man’s pistols out of the man’s hands. Another kick and the man was sent flying, hitting some rumble and being stuck for a moment in shock. When Kabal came in at him with those hook swords, he ducked out of the way and swiped the man’s legs out from underneath him before running further into the palace.

Nightwolf came at him, next. One glowing tomahawk and then the next when Johnny flipped out of the way, coming in slow in a sliding swept to knock the man’s legs out from underneath him. Downed, Johnny grabbed the back of his top and then chucked him backwards with the others before running forward and further into the palace.

Sindel was the next revenant to come at him, the former queen striding with slow and fluid grace at him. He ran at her as he saw those deadly vocal cords start to bulge with her coming banshee scream. Only to go low and slide between her feet as said scream ripped through the air above him, filling the mostly quiet Netherrealm air with the ringing cry. He stood up behind her, yelled ‘sorry!’, grabbed her air and used it to swing her around and then send her flying backwards into the approaching revenants that were coming up behind him. She knocked them all over and Johnny was free to start running again.

Smoke and Kung Lao were up next, likely having only interfere when Johnny made it as far as he did. Johnny barely missed losing his head when Kung Lao sent his hat flying from behind the cover of a corner. Smoke came at him next, already in a familiar offensive stance as Johnny quickly rushed in to avoid giving Kung Lao a clear target. He ended up having to trade blow for blow with Smoke, the man more keen and lucid then the other revenants, dredging up what he knew of Lin Kuei training to keep from getting hit with a smoke covered fist that probably would have done something disturbingly gory.

To make matters worse, Johnny had to keep avoiding the hat as well as sometimes shoving Smoke out of the way of Kung Lao’s deadly weapon. Apparently him getting close enough to the king and queen was warrant enough for the revenants to hurt one another. The only good thing was that with Kung Lao’s hat flying around, Johnny saw Kabal, Stryker and Sindel hanging back, not wanting to get sliced and diced as well. Of course, it was still two against one and the second that hat stopped flying, it would be many more against one.

Blow for blow for blow, ducking and weaving and grabbing Smoke’s armor to get him out of the way of Kung Lao’s hat. Johnny only got a break when he had to yank Smoke down again and got the brilliant idea to pull the man down and kick his knee up at the same time. The result was a very unconscious Smoke on the ground with stares in his hellfire eyes and Johnny running forwards as the hat whistled by his ear, missing by a hair’s breadth.

Johnny took that corner, grabbing it, swinging his legs up and double kicking Kung Lao in the chest and sending him hurtling back. Unable to go back the way he came, Johnny ran past the winded and confused Kung Lao and started running that way.

What a disturbing game of cat and mouse. If Johnny got caught, he was dead, plain and simple. One, maybe two, revenants was not that much of an issue, but all of the ones chasing him? He would be dead. So he could not stop, he had to outwit his enemies, he had to keep moving forward despite his body burning hot with use and weighing down with exhaustion. If he stopped he would die and he had one thing he had to do before then.

The throne room was found eventually, apparently the new rulers having moved it from one large empty room to a much larger one.

Liu Kang, wearing the armor of Netherrealm, sat in a throne fit for a king. While Kitana sat in a throne of the exact size and shape of the first, next to him. Two pairs of cold Netherrealm hell fire eyes regarded him as he rushed into the room, panting and breathing hard and feeling everything weigh him down.

“ _Johnny Cage,_ ” Liu Kang rasped, “ _How unusual for a visitor to come here. Are you perhaps seeking to swear fealty to your emperor?_ ”

“No,” Johnny said simply before running forward.

Kitana rose and threw one fan and then the other, Johnny jumped and twisted himself midair out of the way of both, hitting the ground and bull rushing Liu Kang. The man barely had time to list his fists as they lit ablaze. Johnny tackled him to the throne, putting all his weight onto the man’s thighs to keep him down. When Kitana lashed out against him, throwing what would have been a deadly punch, Johnny leaned back, grabbing Liu Kang’s armor and sending them tumbling backwards out of the way.

On the ground, Johnny pulled the potion out of his pocket, ripped the cork out with his teeth. Using a free hand, he pinched Liu Kang’s nose and kept them there. Waiting for the man to stubborn hold onto his breath until he was forced to breath out his mouth, Johnny kept Kitana at bay with his legs, grateful that Kitana did not want to try and slice at him with her fans with his being on Liu Kang. She was furious, eyes glowing almost white with the Netherrealm fire burning away inside of her.

Liu Kang breathed out. Johnny dumped the potion into the man’s open mouth and then moved one hand to clamp shut over the man’s mouth and the other still pinching his nose. Liu Kang would have to swallow his salvation or choke.

“ _What did you do to him?!_ ” Kitana screamed.

Johnny kept fending her off with his leg, keeping her at bay while Liu Kang struggled underneath of him. Hands grabbed at Johnny’s clothes, too panicked to do anything then claw and hit lightly. Just a bit more… just a bit more--

Liu Kang’s throat bobbed with a telltale swallow.

Letting him go, Johnny lashed out and hit Kitana as hard as he could, getting her stomach and sending the undead queen down to her knees. With her down for a second, but knowing the others were quick behind her, Johnny picked up Liu Kang as he started to cough and wheezing wetly, and tossed him over one shoulder. Frantically looking around, he spied a window in the throne room a few feet off the ground. Dashing over, he grabbed part of a spike that jutted from the wall and started hauling himself and Liu Kang upwards.

The throne room doors opened, Johnny gritted his teeth as he kept going, hauling himself up and onto the windowsill.

_Bang! Bang! Bang!_

Ignoring the two white hot points of pain in his body, Johnny leapt from the window and fell. Fell. Fell. And tumbled when he hit the ground, rolling with Liu Kang, tumbling across the ground like the potato sack that he landed like. But he was forcing himself up, hauling Liu Kang back up onto his shoulder. And he was running. And running.

And running.

* * *

A ‘ding’ noise made Cassie turn her head from the ten or so people screaming and arguing with one another to a small disk on Raiden’s desk. Glancing over to see if Raiden had seen it, she sighed when she realized that he was still yelling at Sonya and Shinnok as the two screamed and argued at the top of their lungs at one another. For three people that wanted the same thing, they sure were going at it in a really bad way.

Sighing, Cassie went over to the desk and picked up the stilling chiming disk, pressing the button on the edge. A brief spark and then Ashrah’s face was there in holographic miniature.

“Now’s really not a good time Ash--”

“Put. Raiden. On,” Ashrah gritted out between her bared teeth.

Blinking, as she had never seen Ashrah even mildly peeved, Cassie went over to the three main sources of volume in the party that was arguing.

“HEY! RAIDEN HAS A CALL FROM ASHRAH!” Cassie yelled over the noise.

Raiden heard her, but Sonya and Shinnok were still screaming bloody murder at one another, Sonya looking like she was about to break something and Shinnok’s eyes going red at the edges, the mark on his neck from where his head had been reattached turning an angry and raw red colour.

“My apologies, Lady Ashrah--” Raiden said as he walked away from the noise.

“What. The. Fuck.”

Raiden blinked owlishly.

“My apologies?”

“What. The. Fuck,” Ashrah practically snarled.

“Is something the matter?” Raiden asked, now seriously concerned that something had gone array in Netherrealm.

Instead of answering, Ashrah turned her device around, swinging it around the room in the process. Raiden saw the laboratory that herself and Sareena worked while they watched Netherrealm for Earthrealm. For a moment he saw the two cells that Noob and Saibot were stored in, and heard quite a few colorful Chinese explictives from the trapped Noob. And then the device settled on something that had Raiden’s stomach dropping in his chest.

“Do you want to keep it?” Sareena asked as she held a bullet in a small pair of tweezers, standing over Johnny who had been stripped of his shirt and pants and laid out on one of the lab’s tables. Raiden could not see the colors, but the dark and wet spot on Johnny’s lower right side and thigh told of blood.

“I didn’t keep the first bullet I got shot with,” Johnny retorted coldly.

The device turned back around to Ashrah, who looked like she was angry enough to murder Raiden over their connection. He was sure that she could if he did not carefully word what he said next.

“... Is he well?”

“They both are--”

“Both?”

Ashrah swung the device around again in the same arch. Just past Johnny, sitting on a table next to where Sareena was stitching Johnny up was--

“Liu Kang,” Raiden breathed.

Liu Kang, human as could be, sat on a table with a blanket wrapped around his being. His eyes were cast downward and he looked as though he had literally clawed his way up from the darkest depths of Netherrealm. Not only that but… he had aged. His hair was now grey and his face was marked with age lines, like he had suddenly aged the twenty years that he had been dead.

“Answers!” Ashrah snapped, turning the device back to her glowering face.

“I… My…” Raiden swallowed thickly. Liu Kang alive… after all this time…

“Liu Kang is alive?”

Shinnok mercifully took the device from his hands, allowing Raiden to fall to his knees and put his face in his hands.

“I should have known you were involved in this. What happened?!” Ashrah snapped.

“Nothing we approved of! We had a theory about saving the revenants and had a possible test for Liu Kang specifically. Johnny took it and ran off!” Shinnok snapped right back.

“Why would a human storm a revenant palace with so many powerful undead inside?!” Ashrah retorted.

“I don’t know!”

“Wait, wait! Where’s Johnny?!” Sonya snapped.

“... One second.”

The device cut out and suddenly a portal formed in the room. Ashrah, dressed up like a beautiful dream but her face telling of the nightmarish things she was thread thin from doing, stepped through. Not long after her, Sareena followed through, wheeling a table with Johnny Cage and Liu Kang on it before quickly stepping back through the portal, likely to keep an eye on the base and Noob and Saibot.

“Dad!” Cassie yelled, rushing up to her dad and hugging him, only for him to hiss and pull back, looking him over and seeing the bandage wrapped around his midsection. “Dad what happened?”

“Stryker still has bullets after twenty years,” Johnny replied, taking his shirt and pulling it on gingerly. “Shot at me three times and got me twice.”

“Liu Kang?” Sonya asked the rather confused man who was looking around the room around him.

“Give him some space, his brain is still processing twenty years of dead memories,” Johnny snipped, sliding off the table with his weight on one leg and gingerly sliding his pants on. Cassie noted the bandage around one of his thighs and looked ready to say something. But when Johnny took out those shades and slapped them on, figured it would be best to give him space too.

“What the hell were you thinking? Storming like a dumbass army of one down there?!” Sonya yelled at Johnny.

“That I could do it, Commander Blade,” Johnny said.

Something about the cold and distant way that he said ‘Commander Blade’ made Sonya think of the ways that she had called him ‘Cage’ the rough and ugly years after their divorce. She lost all heat and felt a cold puddle form in the bottom of her stomach as she realized just how bad that Johnny had gotten over the past few months. If he was doing shit like this…

Johnny limped over to Liu Kang and helped the man off the table, wrapping one of the man’s arms around his neck.

“Dad, what are you doing?”

“He’s not staying here,” Johnny said as he used his free hand to dig out his amulet. “Can you imagine the shitstorm that will happen when he remembers that Raiden murdered him?”

“N-no, wait, I can talk to him, explain,” Raiden said, quickly getting to his feet, completely lacking his usual grace and calculated and easy flowing movements. “Please, Johnny. I can fix this--”

“Leave it alone, Lord Raiden,” Johnny said.

The amulet lit up and the two men were gone. Everyone just stared numbly at where the two were, all feeling a profound sense of dread grip their guts in an icy grip. Raiden fell to his knees again, hunched over the ground and shaking like a leaf in the storm. Shinnok dropped by his side and placed an arm at his back. Cassie shuffled over to her mom and just… gave her a hopeless stare, one that Sonya mimicked back.

“... What the fuck is happening in Earthrealm?” Ashrah asked.

* * *

Hanzo was glad to host Liu Kang while he recovered, though insisted that Johnny immediately get off his feet. During the bit that he had walked and teleported them, Johnny’s wounds had started bleeding again. Johnny for his part, said…

Nothing.

Hanzo was so used to the man filling the idle quiet space. So many years of listening to his quips and jokes and silly nicknames and just the noise and… the past few months, Hanzo realized that had grown anxious over the lack of noise. Johnny had been quieting down until this point of just… nothingness. Johnny said nothing as Hanzo and Kuai Liang got the two men to two beds that they could lay down on.

“Who… are you?” Liu Kang asked Hanzo as he helped the man along.

“I am Grandmaster Hanzo Hasashi, of the Shirai-Ryu,” Hanzo said, bowing his head.

“The… the Shirai-Ryu?”

“Yes I… you do not remember me?” Hanzo asked him.

“No, I’m sorry…”

“I… used to go by a different moniker. I used to be called Scorpion.”

Liu Kang stumbled, trying to get his leadened feet away from him. Hanzo had to grab him more firmly and keep him on track.

“But I have no used that name for many years and I am a very different person then I was twenty years ago,” Hanzo quickly added.

“... twenty years?” Liu Kang asked, sounding like he could not fathom a single syllable.

“Twenty two, more like,” Kuai Liang added.

“Who are you?” Liu Kang asked, sounding distressed.

“I am Grandmaster Kuai Liang of the Lin Kuei. I go by Sub-Zero.”

“... If you’re Sub-Zero, did he kill you?!”

“No I… I thought we had talked about this all those years ago? My brother, Bi-Han, was the Sub-Zero that Hanzo killed, I am his younger brother,” Kuai Liang explained.

Liu Kang just looked distressed.

“Then who is that?” Liu Kang asked, pointing at the still deathly silent Johnny.

“You don’t know?”

“He looks like he could Johnny Cage’s father, perhaps?”

“He is Johnny Cage.”

Liu Kang looked ready to cry.

“Let us… give you more time to process the information before you before giving you more,” Hanzo awkwardly coughed. “You need rest, you have been through an ordeal.”

They helped Liu Kang to a bed where he laid out and just stared wide eyed and confused at the ceiling. They got Johnny to a bed too and watched the man slowly take off his sunglasses, throw an arm over his eyes, and just go still.

“Johnny… are you well?” Hanzo asked.

Johnny did not answer.

“Johnny, what happened?” Kuai Liang tried.

Johnny did not answer.

“... There is no way that that is Johnny Cage,” Liu Kang muttered.

“He is, he’s just…” Hanzo started and then faltered. “He has not been himself lately.”

Kuai Liang and Hanzo shared a look before looking at the still form of Johnny Cage.


	13. Reclamation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Language, violence, mentions of a character's poor mental health and wellbeing, mentions of a character displaying PTSD symptoms
> 
> Reclaim what you have lost
> 
> EDIT: So enthralled was I about Nightwolf being announced that... I fucking forgot about Nightwolf. Rip. He's added now.

Kung Jin teleported to the base of the step of Kotal Kahn’s palace.

“SKY MAN! SKY MAN!”

Jin looked around and saw a very eager looking Ferra/Torr combo rushing down the steps towards him… only for Torr to lift his big head up and dead stop almost hard enough to send Ferra soaring. Thankfully she had a grip on his armor straps and only ended up flying over his shoulder while still hanging onto Torr’s armor. Torr merely lifted her back up so that she could resume her place on his back. And now that she was not blinded by overeagerness, she actually looked disappointed that she was looking at Jin.

“Expecting someone else?” Jin asked.

“Sky man,” Ferra huffed.

“Sky man?” Jin asked, confused.

“You know! Sky man! Torr said he was a, a… moon-ne-star,” Ferra said.

“Moonie star? Wait… movie star?”

‘Yeah!”

“Oh… you were hoping for Mr. Cage,” Jin sighed deeply.

“Yeah, where is?” Ferra asked.

“He’s… he’s not doing well, he’s currently with Grandmaster Hasashi and…” Jin trailed off into a long sigh.

Johnny Cage had not been getting better. According to Hanzo and Kuai Liang, Johnny hardly spoke a word nowadays. He was ‘silent as death’ most days and when he did speak, it was with this… almost disturbingly dead tone and he formally addressed everyone. No nicknames, not even shorter versions of everyone’s names either. And honestly, everyone was dead worried about him at this point. This was not the Johnny Cage that they all loved, this was... 

Someone else.

“Greetings--” Kotal started as he trailed down the steps before looking up and seeing that it was Jin there. “Kung Jin. I was expecting Mr. Cage.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. I came here to do check up and ask something of you,” Jin sighed. It was going to be a long day for him.

“I still cannot give over fighters, sadly.”

“No, actually, we found a way to get our undead back,” Jin said.

While Kotal took Jin through the palace to show him all was well, Jin explained the potions. Thanks to Johnny’s suicidal rush through Netherrealm, they realized that they could indeed bring back their dead through a potent mix of alchemy, soul magic from Ermac, and undead magic through Shinnok. However, the key ingredient in the potion was DNA from the person that they were trying to bring back. Thankfully, Raiden had some hair clippings from Liu Kang from his early childhood. However everyone else? They needed to hunt those samples down.

“So you need something from Sindel, Kitana and Jade?” Kotal asked.

“Yeah, we figured it was a long shot, but we wanted to see if Mileena or Shao kept anything of theirs?”

“... Yes actually.”

Jin did not like that tone of the big man’s, but followed him through the palace and then down a few sets of stairs until they were likely at the bottom level, or perhaps the basement. Kotal took an unlit torch from a wall, lit it with one of Jin’s matches, before leading the way further and further in. Past dusty and cobweb and bug infested cells that Jin was glad were not being used, now that Kotal was being a kinder Kahn to the realm. Past rooms that looked like they were being used as storage of ancient things that looked half dry rotted and covered with the dust and bug left things of the ages.

Further and further until they hit a still mildly intact door. Kotal had to put his shoulder against it and push with some force to get it open, the door squealing on rusty hinges as it reluctantly opened for the two of them. Once it was open enough, they both slipped inside and…

“Oh,” Jin breathed.

Two crude shrines. 

One was built around what looked like an ancient portrait of Kitana, the paint faded and chipping at the edges, decorated with bug eaten blue cloth that must have been several pieces of Kitana’s clothing at some point. At the base were several metal dishes with the dried and melted down remains of what must have been several candles at one point, and three pairs of war fans like Kitana used. There were also several pieces of jewelry that must have been Kitana’s at one point.

The other was built around what must have been an even more ancient portrait of Sindel, most of the paint had peeled or peeled and the barely seen face looked much younger then the undead queen. Several pieces of bug eaten black leather and purple cloth hung off the rotted portrait, the remains of some of the queen’s outfits, perhaps. Like with Kitana’s shrine, there were several metal dishes with completely melted and hardened puddles of candles. Unlike with Kitana’s there were three hairbrushes with, much to Jin’s luck, a couple dozen silvery long strands of hair.

“Even in her madness, there was something in her that recognized a bond between her and her… ‘family’,” Kotal said as Jin gingerly gathered the silver hair in a leather bag, careful to not destroy the ancient strands of hair.

“... You think maybe she wanted to be normal?” Jin asked as he carefully shut the bag and then looked over Kitana’s shrine for anything that they could use.

“I do not know. However, I now know that she suffered an extreme illness of the mind that drove her mad and perhaps made her do things that she would not agree with if she were in a healthier state of being,” Kotal sighed.

“Do you regret having her killed?”

“Yes. At the time, perhaps it seemed like the wisest course of action. But her death did not end the civil war and it pushed all her allies away from ever agreeing with me or wanting to unite with me. And now… now that I have had time to contemplate her actions, I see now that her tormented mind was a product of Shang Tsung’s disgusting black magic and Shao’s expectations,” Kotal sighed. “I do wonder these days… what would have happened if she had had help to seek her own being, her own person, instead of being Shao’s ‘perfect’ pet, a tool to keep the throne.”

Jin sighed, Kotal had a few points that he hated thinking about. It always sucked thinking that ‘maybe we shouldn’t have killed that person’.

The Kitana shrine had no hair. But tucked away underneath a piece of cloth was a small jar with little itty bitty teeth inside. On a faded sticker, was ‘[unintelligible] baby teeth’. They must have been Kitana’s baby teeth, Jin was not sure what else they could be. Jin sighed deeply before adding those to the bag too.

For Jade, they ended up hunting down a room crammed with stuff that looked like it had been haphazardly tossed inside at one point, probably called ‘junk’ by the two previous mad Kahn’s. After digging around, Jin found a jade, emerald and gold hair pin with several strands of hair attached it. Carefully he unwound those and placed them in the bag as well… and then as a secondary thought, took the hairpin and carried it back to the shrines and laid it there between the two lost royalty.

Did not seem right to have Jade tossed aside like junk, forgotten. And even if they were going to be brought back, it still felt like the right thing to do, if nothing else but to make up for the torment that the three lost women had suffered for over twenty years.

“Have you secured the things you need for the others?” Kotal asked as Jin stood up, checking the bag to make sure all was well, still.

“Uh yeah. Stryker and Kabal had blood stored away from a drug test right before everything went down, apparently no one tossed it. Nightwolf’s tribe had a lock of hair from something and were happy to give it over to us. You got us this stuff for Kitana, Sindel and Jade. Raiden is looking for something for Kung Lao now. And apparently Kuai Liang saved a bunch of the cyborg corpses after blowing the cyber Lin Kuei base, so we got Smoke covered… actually Shinnok apparently has an idea to bring back Sektor and Cyrax but Kuai Liang doesn’t like it.”

Kotal just nodded, looking somber.

“Do you have any more fighters that can come to your aid?”

“We’re… we’re trying. Raiden tracked down Bo Rai Cho and one of the younger upcoming White Lotus students, Kai. Fujin is also trying to track down some of the gods, but they’re apparently hard to find on a good day,” Jin sighed.

“The situation is grave.”

“Very much so… let’s get the checkup done, we’ve got a dozen things that need to get done and we’re quickly running out of time.”

“Of course.”

* * *

Shinnok and Ermac were just putting the cork on the last potion when the last person of the Netherrealm raiding team showed up.

“Alright, we have the potions with the recipient's names attached, I assume that you all have chosen your particular undead to rescue?” Shinnok asked as he placed Sindel’s potion on the table.

“Yes,” Sonya said, checking her backup pistol before slapping it in its place at her thigh. “I’ll be getting Stryker. Kenshi will be getting Kabal. Sareena will get Nightwolf. Bo Rai Cho will get Jade. Cassie and Jacqui will be getting Kitana. Takeda will take Kung Lao. Fujin will be getting Sindel. Raiden will be taking Smoke. Any questions?”

“Can I get a few more of those sticky bombs? Kabal is fast and I’m… I’m blind,” Kenshi asked. Ermac pressed a few more glasses vials into his waiting hand.

“Do you want to switch?” Sonya asked.

“No. My telepathy will help, and from what we can tell, the gods are needed where they are,” Kenshi sighed. “Just… if I start yelling, will someone come help me?”

“I’ll be your backup. Stryker was a damned good cop, but he’s not a trained ninja with smoke powers, a ten thousand year old trained warrior princess, Nightwolf and his array of skills and powers, a ten thousand year old trained assassin, an even more ancient trained queen with banshee powers or a speedster armed with hook swords,” Sonya said with a small upbeat of humor. “The rest of you, the same. If you’re overpowered, find another group and team up. No heroics. Understood?”

“Yes, Commander Blade!”

“Keep in touch. And Ermac?”

“Yes, Commander?”

“We need Raiden and Fujin for this, but Shinnok is still technically under house arrest. Your job is to keep Shinnok here at all costs. If we fall, we fall. Keep him here,” Sonya ordered. “This is hassle enough, I don’t need international powers bitching at me that Shinnok moved. Or starting a shit show with other realms because he moved.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Ermac said.

“I won’t be a bother, Commander,” Shinnok sighed, “Besides, I need to open the portal and keep it open, and if nothing else, I would not leave Raiden in Netherrealm.”

“Mighty kind of you, Shiny,” Cassie muttered before standing by her mother. “Ready mom.”

“Alright… remember, no heroics. We’re trying to save the drowners, not be drowned.”

Shinnok opened a dark and shimmering purple portal to the Netherrealm and the team marched through.

* * *

The palace was cold despite the usual hell like heat of the Netherrealm.

Sonya was grateful that she had a few layers on from her gear, carefully navigating the palace grounds. Also grateful that in their undead states, the revenants seemed as sharp as brass tacks. She had already walked not too far from Kung Lao and managed to duck away out of sight of Sindel who seemed hellbent on something as she floated down a hallway. Sonya briefly wondered if the hellfire color of their eyes actually fucked with their eyesight, before finding Stryker.

He was in a side room, away from the others. He was standing stock still in the middle and looking down at something in his palm. Looked like a wedding ring from where Sonya could see as she snuck up behind him. Steeling herself, she lifted her pistol and brought it down on the back of Stryker’s head. The man grunted and fell to the ground, disoriented.

“Stay down.”

Stryker twisted around but Sonya was already straddling him, pinning his arms underneath her legs and yanking the cork out of the potion and forcing his mouth open to swallow it all.

* * *

Even if he was blind, Kenshi had the advantage of being able to pinpoint Kabal rather then search the palace and potentially having to face other revenants. But when it actually came time to fight--

“Hello!”

“ _What the fuck…_ ” Kabal rasped.

“Sorry, thought I’d give you a heads up. I was just going to use Sento to destroy your respirator, and then realized that if I turn you back, you need it to breathe,” Kenshi noted as he unsheathed his sword, scratching at his jaw idly. “And I can’t hurt you, we don’t exactly have medical professionals on standby…”

“ _Die._ ”

Kabal started to run and Kenshi threw a sticky bomb, the bottle shattering and sticky glue blooming across the floor. Kabal’s feet got caught as the man dashed forward, thinking that he could beat it. The glue dried quickly and Kabal found his boots stuck to the floor as Kenshi approached.

“Hold still now,” Kenshi said, using his telekinesis to keep Kabal’s limbs pinned to his sides. Kabal rasped and choked behind his mask as Kenshi strode forward to gently pull Kabal’s mask down, tugging the pipe from his mouth that lead down into his lungs and then easing his head back to let gravity take the potion where it needed to be in Kabal’s body. “Drink quickly so I can put your respirator back on. And I’ll reunite you with Stryker soon.”

Kabal’s hellfire eyes popped as the potion was forced down his throat, damaged windpipe unable to reject the potion.

“Sorry. Telepath. It seems that even being the undead, you never forgot your love for your husband and it still rings in your thoughts. Don’t worry, Sonya has him. You’ll be reunited soon,” Kenshi soothed.

For some reason, Kenshi felt Kabal fighting his hold a lot less after that.

* * *

Bo Rai Cho heard a few fights going on as he nonchalantly walked through the dark and damp palace of the undead. Youngsters these days had so much energy, he was actually envious of the new heroes of Earthrealm. But ah well. No one had his level of skill, something that he was actually hoping to test against an assassin that had had a few thousand years to hone her skills.

Humming softly, Bo Rai Cho actually enjoyed something of a stroll through the dark gothic halls before he encountered his target and another. Jade and Smoke looked like they had been trying to hunt someone else down, the two looking quite surprised at seeing him there.

“Greetings,” Bo Rai Cho nodded.

“ _Go support the others, I can take an old man alone,_ ” Jade rasped. Smoke nodded and disappeared, leaving the two there.

“Old? Well you got me there. Should probably be grateful that you didn’t throw ‘fat’ on there too, most people comment about the weight,” Bo Rai Cho huffed. “They don’t realize that as you get older, you naturally can’t keep that warrior’s body that people fawn over. Also drinking can make losing weight harder, and it is part of my fighting style--”

“ _Enough talk. Die,_ ” Jade hissed, leveling her staff at Bo Rai Cho.

“Eh, you’re right… I think I won’t need my gourd for this,” Bo Rai Cho hummed before sliding in an offensive stance. 

And just like most everyone else that had fought Bo Rai Cho, Jade criminally underestimated him. She swung low and for his legs, thinking to use his weight to her advantage. Only for Bo Rai Cho to do as he had done before, showing an expert knowledge of the limits and strengths of his body, jumping up and falling down at exactly the right time and downward force to slam Jade’s staff, and her since her grip was good, down to the ground. She looked up in time to get a well placed and hard chop to the neck that completely disoriented her and sent her into a crumpled heap on the ground, gasping for air.

“I’ve been training champions for a very long time, young one,” Bo Rai Cho said as he took out the potion, tugging down Jade’s mask and then pressing down with his index and thumb at the hinges of her jaw to pry her mouth open enough for the potion to be administered. Between choking and drinking, since she was still struggling from the chop a second ago, Jade reluctantly took the potion.

“Your technique is good, but lacking, young one. Maybe in another thousand years we’ll do this again,” Bo Rai Cho said with a friendly upbeat.

* * *

"Gotta work on this quick and get back to Ashrah," Sareena said. "She needs help with Bi-Han..."

Sareena strode through the palace for a bit, trying not to think about how she very much had not wanted to set foot in the building that she had seen a number of times in the distance of her temporary home... though it would not be for long. She could go back to Earthrealm if they were successful. That would be nice!

After a moment of running around, and once avoiding Takeda and Kung Lao as they ran through a hallway while fighting, Sareena finally found Nightwolf as he was picking up a bow from what looked like an ancient and dusty armory.

"I'm so sorry for this," She said as the man turned towards her.

She flew through the air, propelled by her powerful legs, and drove her knee into the man's forehead. He went down dazed for a second, enough time for her to touch down and then twirl backwards, using her momentum to bring a flying kick upwards against the man's chin. Knocked back, Sareena dashed forward and rammed her shoulder into the man's gut and carried him to a wall of chains that looked like they once belonged to chain weaponry and threw him against it. Winded again, she quickly got the man tangled hopeless within the ancient metal before getting out the potion.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," She chanted as she ripped the cork out with her teeth and then forced the man to drink the potion while holding his jaw open with one hand. But at least he drank, so she was sure that he would forgive her later... hopefully.

* * *

“So… you looking forward to this?” Cassie asked Jacqui as they walked through the palace.

“No… she can kick our asses even on her off days,” Jacqui sighed.

“Why there’s two of us,” Cassie muttered.

Thankfully it seemed with others picking their fights, they did not need to roam the creepy and dark halls of the palace for long before they came on the undead queen as she looked like she was storming through her palace. Fiery undead eyes bore into the two women as Kitana snapped open her fans like a frill-necked lizard, only this lady wanted to do more then appear big and threatening.

“And here we go!”

They had a plan. Cassie would keep her distance and shoot, keep Kitana’s attention divided and unfocused as Jacqui went in close for hand to hand combat. And they started doing that, Cassie peppering shots at non-vitals, forcing Kitana to devote one war fan to deflecting shots and allowing only one arm to fend off Jacqui’s hits, taking a few to her stomach and side for her trouble. And the plan was to keep at it until Kitana wore out or they got lucky, whichever came first.

And the plan would have gone well…

Had Sindel not let out a rather distressed scream from within the palace, making Kitana snap her head up to the sound. A dark growl ripped through her chest and with a twirl, she made a gust of wind that sent Jacqui flying back and knocked Cassie off her feet. Free, Kitana started running towards the sound of Sindel’s scream of distress. Cassie and Jacqui had only a second to gather themselves before they were giving chase, Cassie shooting at Kitana, but the undead queen surprisingly nimble and jumping around like a frog despite her stiletto heels.

“Fujin!” Cassie yelled over the comm link, “Kitana is running towards your location. We’re running after her but she’s coming in hot.”

“Unfortunate,” Fujin said over the link, “We shall have to fight together then. Come then!”

They came into a room where Sindel was trying to blast Fujin with screams as he flew around the air, face alight with almost eager delight, as he avoided each deadly blast of sound. Kitana was stopped for a second and Cassie wordlessly promised to apologize later and took out one of her knees with a bullet. A screech of pain ripped out of Kitana as she went down naturally, and Sindel turned and screamed at the sight of a wounded Kitana.

“Great job!” Fujin yelled happily as Sindel’s throat bulged with her next attack.

Cassie and Jacqui dodged in time for Sindel to scream a boulder sized hole into the ground, not stopping to be scared and Cassie starting to shoot as Jacqui got up and started to trade blows with Kitana while Sindel had to fight off Fujin. It was really just a mess then of the tree trying to batter the other two down to submission or exhaustion. Just a rather mad mix of Cassie shooting, Jacqui punching, Fujin dashing or sending slashing waves of air and Sindel screaming and Kitana fending off any attacks that she could while she was down a leg.

It came to an end when Fujin just flat out disappeared into thin air, becoming one with the wind so to speak, and reappeared behind Sindel and managed to shove the opened potion into her open mouth. She swallowed to prevent choking and down the potion went. With her mother stalled, Cassie and Jacqui teamed up to bullrush Kitana, bullying her fans out of her hands with Jacqui holding Kitana still as Cassie yanked down her mask and shoved the bottle opening between her teeth.

* * *

_Dad!_

Kenshi had joined the group of already successful raiders as they tried to help the revenants as they seemed to reject their conditions through smoke out of the mouth, but hearing his son’s distressed thought had him running to him, pinging his mind to keep his feet on track. Sonya called out after him, but Kenshi kept running, and running, and running until he came upon the fight.

Sight was, of course, useless. But he could hear Kung Lao’s hat flying through the air with deadly speed and force and the sound of Takeda’s bladed whips as they fended it off.

“I’m here!”

“I can’t get a hit in!”

Kung Lao’s hat as well as his martial art skills meant that he was deadly at both close and long range. They were safest at long range, so they had to fend off Kung Lao’s thrown hat. Thankfully, even Kung Lao’s potent throwing arm and aim were not too much for either of them, Takeda using his whips to deflect them and Kenshi using Sento. But that also meant that they were stuck on the defense.

_Any ideas?_

_Uh… Wait, sticky bombs!_

Kenshi threw one, catching Kung Lao’s hat as it came at him. And unfortunately, Kung Lao had to catch it, immediately dropping it when the glue touched his fingers. All Takeda needed to snap the blades back into his whips and simply catch Kung Lao with them, allowing Kenshi to rush up and force feed the potion into Kung Lao’s mouth.

* * *

“I see everyone was successful,” Sonya sighed as Jacqui and Fujin met up with them, each carrying an unconscious woman on their back that was rapidly losing their ashen color.

“What about Raiden?”

“I am here,” Raiden said, bent over a woozy Smoke and undoing some of the Netherrealm armor that he was trapped in.

“Wait, how’d your fight go?” Cassie asked as she caught up.

“I zapped him,” Raiden deadpanned.

“... Figures,” Cassie muttered, making Jacqui giggle.

Kabal and Stryker were huddled up on the ground, Stryker coughing and hacking up greasy black smoke while Kabal’s respirator struggled to pump out the same smoke from the main compartment hanging at the small of his back. Jade was bent over on the ground and just dry heaving the smoke out while Kenshi gently patted her back to aid the way. Kung Lao was shaking as the smoke just kept spilling from his lips. Nightwolf shivered as he held up a hand to catch the smoke pouring from his wheezing mouth.

“They need medical attention, get Shinnok to get us back home,” Sonya said to Raiden.

“Of course.”

* * *

“Wait, they had a child?!”

“Yes, her name is Cassandra. Talented young woman,” Kuai Liang said to the shocked Liu Kang.

“Sonya Blade… and Johnny Cage… made a child?!” Liu Kang gasped.

Kuai Liang just sighed. He had been trying to catch Liu Kang up on almost twenty years of events, but the poor man seemed to be continuously shocked by everything that had happened so far.

“They are divorced now,” Kuai Liang offered.

“... Johnny Cage is a father,” Liu Kang muttered with horror.

“He is a good father,” Kuai Liang snapped, rather harshly but his patience was growing thin and he certainly was not going to let Liu Kang insult Johnny like this. “Cassandra is as amazing young woman as she is because Johnny raised her with tender love and care. He is not the man that we knew twenty some odd years ago. He has grown into a respectable, loving and caring man with a tempered heart and cooled temper and ego.”

“... My apologies,” Liu kang muttered, clearly surprised by Kuai Liang’s anger.

Kuai Liang wanted to apologize but at the same time, he was very tired. Everything that was going on and the Titan fight that was only a month off…

“Grandmaster Kuai Liang.”

That almost made him whimper. On the spot. Instead he turned to look at the dead eyed Johnny Cage.

“Yes, Johnny?”

“They got the Revenants back.”

“My thanks. I look forward to bringing Tomas home,” Kuai Liang sighed.

Johnny just nodded before walking off and Kuai Liang felt a very sharp stabbing pain in his chest.

“I like this Johnny Cage more.”

Kuai Liang turned to glare outright dark and bloody murder at Liu Kang, who only lifted his hands up.


	14. God save the Jester

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Descriptions of blood and violence, speculative thinking of sever depression
> 
> What expression does the fool wear underneath the bright and colorful smile? Nothing happy, I assure you.
> 
> A very large heads up. Hanzo speculates on Johnny's mental health. His current symptoms reflect a lot of what I went through when my mental health hit absolute rock bottom so it was... rather personal to write this chapter. That also means that things are rather pointedly rather angsty. But it has a hopeful ending! ((yes the burn of the ship to be is now kindled and yes some of you have figured it out and yes we start at pecking away at what Johnny needs to pick himself back up))

“The vision just grows more and more clear, it hasn’t changed!”

Johnny Cage wielding the blood magic corrupted dagger, face a twisted and immoral mask of his features and his eyes completely glowing red with the evil power that tainted his veins. The fighters clashing until they fall against still unknown enemies. Havik still possessed by something that makes black blood fall freely from his body.

But they are in so much clearer detail now, worse now that they were so picture clear instead of fading at the edges. 

The bruises to Johnny’s face, his lip is bleeding and his teeth are stained red as they coil into something that is supposed to be a smile but the inhumane edge is manic and could only come from whatever evil lays in the corrupted daggers.

How bruised and beaten the fighters are. It is not just exhaustion from fighting opponents that do not fall, but they are losing besides that. They are covered in bruises and scrapes and cuts there are broken bones and stab wounds and there is blood and hurt flesh. They are _losing_ and _badly_.

And Havik… somehow he is alive in a sense. He clearly is walking and moving on his own, there is clear sentience and will to the way that he moves. Not a controlled undead thrall but somehow alive. And gods the thing that is making him move… black blood like thick ink dribbling freely from his eyes, the skeletal holes of his nose, from between his naked teeth. But despite the clarity of the detail, how wet he can see the trails are and how it drips freely from his persona and leaves dark little marks on the ground, somehow Raiden can tell it’s an illusion. A manifestation of the thing inside of Havik.

And now…

The Titan.

A massive being that looked like a woman, if she were halfway to rot. Skin a sickly yellowed and greyed color with black veins, black talons, black teeth and black lips that lead to the void of her belly that no secret has yet to fill. Black and wide eyes that stare with only hunger and seeing only meat to devour. A tangled mess of long messy hair that is too filthy to figure a color. The First Seed of Revenge.

“Raiden, please, calm yourself,” Shinnok said firmly but with care.

“I will not be calmed!” Raiden yelled, red sparks shooting off his being. “Why are we struggling against a fate that will not change?! What are we doing wrong?! Why is this future set in stone?!”

“Lord Raiden?”

Raiden quickly centered himself to look at Kung Lao, standing in the doorway of the room and looking quite hesitant about speaking up. His face was creased with worry, body language unsure and… afraid.

“I am… terribly sorry, Kung Lao,” Raiden sighed deeply, “You are not seeing me at my… best.”

“No it’s… it’s okay.”

It broke Raiden’s heart to see Kung Lao like he was. Aged the twenty years that he was undead and now resembling a man in his early forties then the twenty something year old that died far too young. Even his hair had grown. Fujin had braided it much like his own for the once proud warrior for Earthrealm and her defence.

“How can I help you?” Raiden asked softly, feeling a strong tremor of relief seeing Kung Lao relax at his much gentler tone.

“The others are here,” Kung Lao offered.

“Is… Liu Kang here?”

“Yes, he’s with three men.”

“... Alright. Come along, Shinnok.”

The three walked to one of the larger rooms of Sky Temple that had been meant for storage but had been cleared out several years ago when Fujin was in one of his cleaning fits. Now it housed several people behind two decades, lost and confused and scared, as they sat on quickly brought benches.

“Greetings, one and all. I hope that you… remember me,” Raiden said to the small crowd.

“Lord Raiden,” Tomáš offered.

“Yes… as you all have been informed, you have been unjustly… unjustly dead for a little over twenty years. Much has changed. A few of you have been attempted to be caught up but… it felt only right that I tell you as much as I can of what happened,” Raiden said. “I will answer everything that I can.”

“... I have a question or sorts?” Kitana said, raising her hand.

“Yes?”

“Can we… uh… I don’t recognize half of you,” Kitana said awkwardly. “Some of you have aged and… I’m terribly sorry but can we run through role call so we can get acquainted with one another?”

“That is a good idea,” Raiden said, “Will anyone start?”

“I am Smoke,” Tomáš offered.

The man already had silver hair before his death. But now it was not gleaming and shining silver, but aged and clouded silver, worn and growing darker grey in some spots. The man’s face was also lined with age marks that told of a man in his mid forties, though his eyes were still those of the young smoke wielding Lin Kuei as before. Soft and dove grey, kind and peaceful despite it all.

“I’m Stryker,” Stryker said from his seat on the ground.

The once blonde cop was not more of a silver streaked blond, his hair now liberally streaked with dark grey but mostly at his temples, the rest peppered and making the once lustrous color jilted and faded. His face had also aged and now the man looked to be in his late forties to early fifties. The once easy going and easy curve of his mouth was ragged, the spirit of a well meaning man still there but rusted and worn from his hellish torment.

“Kabal,” Kabal said from his seat next to Stryker.

Kabal looked much the same, thanks to his burn scars and his equipment. Though the scarring looked much more settled and duller now, the once raw scarring replaced with skin that looked like it had had twenty some odd years to heal. Also he still had to have his mask to breathe, so his face was still covered. But his long black hair was now a dark grey color, the color worn evenly all over.

“I am Nightwolf, still… I think,” Nightwolf said.

Unlike the others who had agged perhaps a bit roughly after becoming human again, Nightwolf looked like he had aged rather gracefully, perhaps meaning that he would have if he had aged normally.There were fewer lines, fewer marks of age and wear and tear. But his eyes were so tired and the man seemed more tired and confused than the others. It seemed that the torment had taken a much harder strike on his mind than body and that worried Raiden greatly.

“I’m Liu Kang,” Liu Kang offered.

“I suppose we look much the same,” Jade said, gesturing to Kitana and Sindel.

The three women indeed look picture perfect the same as they had before they had been killed. The only difference was that there was a certain… ‘heaviness’ to them that told that they had endured a great deal of hell. They looked so tired and scared and anxious.

“Alright… who are you three?” Kitana asked the three men hanging off to the side.

“I am Kuai Liang,” Kuai Liang offered, “I am the newer Sub-Zero. The one that replaced my brother.”

“I am Hanzo Hasashi, I… used to go by Scorpion.”

Everyone was suddenly on guard, going for weapons that they confiscated just for this reason.

“Don’t!” Raiden called. “I told you all. A lot of changed. Grandmaster Hanzo Hasashi is now a fighter for Earthrealm, he has repaired the rivalry with the Lin Kuei and Sub-Zero and has changed much in the twenty years that you have known him last. He killed Quan Chi.”

That settled everyone for the moment, but there were a lot of mistrusting eyes on Hanzo now. Hanzo bore it almost regally, squaring his shoulders and staring back indifferently.

After a moment of everyone staring at him, Kuai Liang thumped Johnny’s shoulder.

“This is Johnny Cage.”

“... He’s wearing a shirt…”

“He’s changed,” Hanzo snapped.

“H-”

“Silence,” Kuai Liang snapped. “He’s changed.”

“Enough,” Raiden sighed before the two could get angry. Why they did not get angry before but they did over Johnny was strange. “Twenty years has changed a lot--”

“Wait… is that… Shinnok?”

Raiden sighed again.

* * *

“It’s good to see you again, Johnny,” Tomáš grinned as the four returned to the Lin Kuei temple.

After Raiden had offered as much as he could, he had sent everyone to safe places to rest and let the information digest. Styrker and Kabal had returned to Special Forces, apparently Sonya had saved a number of their possessions and had a place for them to sleep. Nightwolf, Kung Lao, Kitana, Sindel and Jade were staying at the Sky Temple until further notice, having no home to return to and none of them wanted to trust Kotal Kahn just yet. Liu Kang and Tomáš went with the Lin Kuei, no one wanting Liu kang around Raiden at the moment and Tomáš ever eager to return home.

Johnny just looked at him. Blank eyes.

“He is… he has not been himself lately,” Hanzo sighed.

“Well I don’t know how he usually is. Twenty years is a lot after all, I didn’t expect him to be the same man that we fought alongside with in the tournament,” Tomáš added, “Twenty years is a lot, like I don’t expect you to be the same, Kuai Liang.”

“I promise, I don’t think I’ve developed anything odd or terrible,” Kuai Liang offered.

“Well you now hang out with Scorpion…”

“Frequently too! From what I’ve seen, they’re rarely apart,” Liu Kang added.

“My, how Bi-Han must be rolling in his grave,” Tomáš said.

“He’s not dead, er…” Kuai Liang sighed.

“Complicated. But tell me anyway!”

Kuai Liang told Tomáš about Bi-Han, from his transformation into Noob Saibot and all the way to his recent capture and recovery underneath the eye of Ashrah. Tomáš listened intently the whole time, only asking him how Bi-Han was doing at present. According to Ashrah, he was regrowing or perhaps rejuvenating lost flesh, looking less corpse like as the days marched on.

“I see,” Tomáš said thoughtfully when Kuai Liang was done.

“I hope that one day I can call him my brother again, that we can redeem his lost soul,” Kuai Liang sighed. “I… want him back. The real him, not Noob.”

“Sounds like you will. In the meantime, this may sound strange, but can I spar with someone?” Tomáš asked.

“Why on earth would you?!” Kuai Liang asked, sounding so concerned that it was endearing.

“You said that a Titan was coming, yes? Well I want to help. You need all the fighters you can get and I am more than happy to volunteer in this fight,” Tomáš grinned. “But I do need some help with that…”

“Well… we can speak about it another time soon okay--”

“Hey look, Johnny is in the ring!” Tomáš beamed as Johnny walked mechically into the Lin Kuei sparring ring before looking dead eye but still somehow, expectantly as Tomáš walked with a pep in his step to the other side. Liu kang walked inside, citing the cold, leaving Hanzo and Kuai Liang to watch with worry.

Everything was fine, they were in their offensive stances. Tomáš’ smoke powers activated and he went soft at the edges, blurry really. Johnny looked like he’s trying to summon his strange power--

Except--

Johnny’s powers, which usually consisted of a soft green glow that manifested into bright and powerful bursts of green energy, just sparked across his being. Like Lord Raiden’s electricity. Johnny frowned and tried again, looking like he was clawing deep to chase something. The green sparks returned and--

**POP.**

Kuai Liang had heard Raiden’s more powerful lightning go off near him, it too made a horrendous ‘pop’ sound that he was sure had popped his ear drums and left his hearing full of ringing and cotton muteness the rest of the week. And that was what this was. A horrendous ‘pop’ sound that sounded like lightning had gone off too close and--

Johnny was sent to his knees, a death like rattle leaving his chest as his eyes snapped wide as he hunched over the ground suddenly unable to breathe. Hanzo was up and running over to him in a second, Kuai Liang following soon after. Rushing over to the man and kneeling by his side, trying to see if they could find anything on the surface wrong with him.

“What was that?!” Tomáš gaped.

“One moment,” Hanzo said, leaving Kuai Liang to fret over Johnny as he finally regained control of his lungs and started wheezing like someone coming down from a bad panic attack. He pulled out his phone, thought a moment, and pulled up Raiden’s contact information, forgoing texts and simply calling the man.

“... Grandmaster Hasashi?” Raide said, an awkward pause after answering. Hanzo never called anyone, barely texted in the group chat. Hanzo could almost feel the man physically grasp the importance.

“What is the source of Johnny’s strange powers?” Hanzo asked, blunt and to the point.

“... Love,” Raiden said back, just as blunt and to the point. “The war cult that Johnny Cage descends from was one that was formed when humans did not take kindly to the thought of a guardian god or the Elder Gods. They developed their powers to protect humanity, drawing in the most power from protecting loved ones. Their power is strongest when they know they must protect those that they hold dearest.”

“What would it mean if his powers were to suddenly… stop?”

“... By logical conclusion, that would mean that Johnny Cage has no loved ones to protect… Grandmaster Hasashi… do not tell me…”

The absolute and sudden dread that filled Hanzo’s heart had no comparison other than running to the attack on his home that resulted in the death of his wife and child, running and praying and hoping that they were alive but knowing butter but hoping like a fool regardless. The feeling of ignoring the known bad conclusion for a more hopeful one. And like when his eyes feel on their cold and bloodied corpses, Hanzo felt his heart freeze as the thought rolled around his head again.

Johnny Cage has made himself believe that he has no loved ones to protect.

Johnny’s heart finally gave up trying to fight the burden that was whatever was plaguing his mind.

Johnny Cage’s heart was cold and dead.

Johnny had killed his heart.

And Hanzo could care less that they just lost most of one of their most capable fighter’s abilities against the coming and likely fatal fight that was the Titan. No. He could give a shit about that. What mattered was that Johnny has made his heart cold and dead and Hanzo knew that there is only potent and powerful illness of the heart and mind that can do that to a person. To make them emotionally dead and numb. He knows that all too well.

Hanzo turned to look at Johnny, now swatting away Kuai Liang’s hands away from him now that he had his breath back. His eyes were cold and distant. ‘The lights are on but nobody's home’ as the saying went. Because without heart, without soul, without emotion, Johnny Cage might as well have been something like Scorpion had once been. A hollow vessel, filled with perhaps one or two things, but nothing else because everything else had been carved out like the guts of an animal.

Because…

Because when the mind strained underneath the brunt of emotion; being stabbed relentlessly with sadness deeper than any ocean trench, with raw anger hotter than any volcano, with self hatred sharper than any blade between the ribs, with everything ugly that the human mind could produce… When the fragile human psyche did nothing but suffer relentless damage from depression, PTSD, constantly remembering trauma, never healing from gushing bleeding wounds of the mind… When a humble man suffered and suffered and suffered...

It felt so much better to be dead and numb.

And Hanzo felt his heart break at the realization that Johnny was in that exact same spot that he had been when he was the Netherrealm wraith Scorpion. And no one had seen past the clownish persona to see what damage had been dealt until now, because how could a fool be sad when his face was painted with a bright and colorful smile?

“I will call back,” Hanzo snapped at the quiet line.

He would not see the fool hanged.


	15. Revival of the Once Lost Ghost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Mentioned possible pining from Kuai Liang and Hanzo towards Johnny, poor mental health, mentioned prior body horror, mentioned trans Cassie Cage, trans Bi-Han, mentioned non-dysphoric transgender individual 
> 
> Johnny has a weird bonding experience with the restored Bi-Han

One could easily forget that Johnny was a very capable fighter. Perhaps one could so easily forget because the man always seemed to be more swagger and charisma then any actual fighting. Always trying to charm and talk instead of fight.

As Kuai Liang defended against Johnny’s attacks, he was being brutally reminded that the man was a very capable fighter besides his strange god fighting powers. Despite Raiden initially being interested in him for Earthrealm’s defence because of his powers, someone that Raiden did not pull aside to train but instead threw into the tournament because he was trained and skilled and strong. And Kuai Liang felt it keenly as he swatted aside attack after attack from the man, feeling the sting of flesh hitting flesh with rather potent strength.

“Kuai Liang, we have guests!” Hanzo called.

They broke apart, Kuai Liang reflectively dipping into a bow. Johnny did the same, stiffly and mechanically dipping to a bow at the waist before rising just as much so. Ignoring the pain in chest at the sight, Kuai Liang walked with Johnny trailing behind him as he went out to the steps of his temple. 

A storm had been brewing outside and the winds were howling in preparation and the snow coming down harder and harder. And standing in the cold and growing colder temperatures, was Sareena, Ashrah and two cloaked figures.

“Greetings, Lady, Ashrah, Lady Sareena, and your guests,” Kuai Liang said, bowing in greeting and getting a mimic from Ashrah.

“Hello, Grandmaster Kuai Liang. My apologies for my sudden appearance. But we received a ‘pull back’ order from Special Forces and I… did not think it was wise for us to stay on Special Forces all things considering…”

“Wait. You had my brother… you didn’t leave him did you?” Kuai Liang asked, panicked.

“No! No! Of course not! In fact…” Ashrah gestured to the two cloaked figures. Kuai Liang peered, trying to look at their faces through the shadows formed by their hoods. After a moment, Ashrah went over and tugged one hood down and--

“Bi-Han,” Kuai Liang breathed.

Bi-Han stood there, trying to avoid looking at him with obvious awkwardness and other dark things. Or at least… it was mostly Bi-Han. His face very much looked like the face of the human had he been allowed to live his life. Face creased with obvious strain and age, very obviously a tired and traumatized man in his fifties. Long, long black hair pulled back into a loose ponytail but with thick greying streaks at his temples and peppered liberally through the length. 

But there were… obvious marks from his time as Noob Saibot. 

There were strange, craggily black marks around his lips that made it look like someone had tried to paint bare skull like teeth and shade too darkly, making his mouth look like a dark maw of cartoonish bare teeth. The same kind of mark about mid-way his nose, likely from where the flesh had rotted away and once left exposed nostrils. And the whites of Bi-Han’s eyes were now black, though thankfully, his pupils were once again the same shade of brown that Kuai Liang’s were.

“Who is that?” Hanzo asked as Kuai Liang stared at his brother, motioning towards the other figure.

“Saibot,” Ashrah said, pulling down the other’s hood.

Underneath the hood, the Saibot had something of a strange mask covering the top of their face. The lower half of their face looked very similar to Bi-Han’s, but the strange black markings that were on Bi-Han’s were there but almost three times worse and darker. And through a tear in the mask, they could see that they had the same scarring on their nose as well, which like their lips, was much worse than Bi-Han’s.

“Again, I know it’s short notice but with Bi-Han’s recovery--”

“Y-yes, of course!” Kuai Liang managed, tearing his eyes away from his brother. “Please, come inside. A storm is coming and you’ve been outside long enough as is.”

The group trailed inside, Kuai Liang immediately finding a room to house the group. He asked one of his students to get some of the guest winter coats and blankets and handed those over as well. Kuai Liang was hard pressed to see that, when Bi-Han removed his cloak to trade it for a much warmer winter coat, that the man was… thin. Too thin. He almost looked as though he was a step above emaciation. Strangely in contrast, when Saibot handed over their cloak for a winter cloak, the… former(?) shadow clone was built much like a wall, even wider and broader than Kuai Liang remembered even Bi-Han being at his peak.

“Is there anything I can get you four?” Kuai Liang asked as they quickly made their guest beds, mostly dividing the blankets out and making warm nests for when they rested.

“Honestly, that you’re housing us is extremely generous of you, Grandmaster,” Ashrah smiled tiredly, speaking of the chaos that had probably been her life the past few days.

“Think nothing of it.”

“I think that we are good--”

“Keep… Hanzo… away… from me,” Bi-Han rasped before coughing. Saibot beat against his back to help him along.

“I will, brother,” Kuai Liang offered.

“Bi-Han. I hope that with your still rather new recovery, that you do not intend to do anything stupid,” Ashrah snapped, unkind with the sharpness of her tongue and actually making Kuai Liang wince. “After all. If you pick I fight, I will just let you bleed on the ground after Hanzo puts down your forty kilo ass.”

“...” Bi-Han glowered but said nothing.

“I get to yell at him, I’ve been dealing with him cursing me in Chinese for far too long now,” Ashrah said simply when Kuai Liang just stared at her.

“... Okay,” Kuai Liang said dumbly. “Lady Sareena?”

“My metabolism will keep me warm. But can I ask for writing things?” Sareena said, obviously eager to break the awkwardness of the situation.

“Of course. I will let your four rest,” Kuai Liang said, leaving the four to do just that, stepping outside to see Hanzo and Johnny standing there.

“... I will stay away from him as best I can,” Hanzo said when Kuai Liang just stood there helplessly, at a loss for words.

“Thank you, dearest,” Kuai Liang breathed.

“... You okay?”

Hanzo and Kuai Liang jumped at the sound of Johnny’s voice. He had not really spoken in several days and spoke so rarely that they both felt like they were forgetting the sound of his voice. It was an alien sound now. A strange sound. And they both hated it.

“I… will be, thank you, Johnny,” Kuai Liang said, hoping to provoke more out of the man. But Johnny just slid right back into that blank stare and death like silence and both himself and Hanzo visibly deflated.

“Excuse me, with the storm, I need to make sure that everyone is inside for the evening.”

Kuai Liang walked away, feeling tired and drained and had several aches and pains in his chest that he was trying to ignore but felt like they were just getting worse. 

Everything seemed to be falling apart at the seams on a personal level, the closer and closer to the Titan fight that they got. Several fighters were now dealing with issues either on a personal level or one dealing with personal relations. His with Bi-Han now returned, Lord Raiden with his sons Liu Kang and Kung Lao once again human, Johnny’s hard mental health decline. 

They still did not know if they had enough fighters or secrets. 

Raiden’s visions of the future were not changing.

The future was grim.

“Kuai Liang,” Tomáš said as he walked, appearing from smoke.

“Yes, Tomáš?” Kuai Liang sighed.

“I have a question. And it seems strange but now I’m worried,” Tomáš said as they stepped outside. Thankfully most everyone was already on their way inside. Kuai Liang needed onto to help a few put away gear to keep it out of the wrath of the storm to hurry them along.

“Yes?”

“Johnny used to use nicknames before, correct?” Tomáš asked as he helped.

“Yes…”

“But… before that… Frost was telling me that you and Scorpion used to always call him Cage or Mr. Cage. But now you call him Johnny… did… did something happen between you three?” Tomáš asked.

“No… I… I don’t know,” Kuai Liang sighed, putting away the last of the equipment and shooing the last student inside. Tomáš and him closed and barred the doors to keep the winds from ripping them open. “He just… was himself. And then he started getting tired. And then he just rapidly… died inside… I worry about him every day.”

“I wasn’t aware that you and Hanzo liked him like that,” Tomáš said.

“... Like what?”

“Oh, my apologies. I assumed it was romantic,” Tomáš shrugged. “Well… all we can do is help as best we can. The mind is a weird and fragile thing.”

Tomáš went ahead and Kuai Liang slowed his pace to… ponder.

He and Johnny had been friends for a number of years now, since shortly after Raiden had gifted him his now students even. He liked the man and he liked a number of things about the man. And in more recent years, as the man mellowed out and matured a bit, smoothing down the abrasiveness of it, Kuai Liang had come to find the man’s goofy personality to be endearing rather than annoying like some people. And from their many talks, he knew that Hanzo felt quite the same. But did that mean that… he liked Johnny romantically?

It certainly would explain a lot…

He found Hanzo watching Johnny from a distance as the man sat in the corner of the sleeping quarters of the students. Hanzo made a motion for him to not get closer and instead listen. So he did. And he realized that Johnny had his phone out and was playing something on it.

“-- _Ready sweetheart?_ ” Johnny’s recorded voice said.

“ _Yep!_ ” A very young child’s voice squeaked out.

“ _Alright. Tell the world who you are!_ ”

“ _My name is Cassandra Cage and I am my daddy’s little girl! Nothing else!_ ”

“ _You tell them! That’s my baby girl._ ”

Johnny moved his thumb across the corner of the screen, twirling it, and then moving his hand aside as the same recording played again. Kuai Liang gave Hanzo a look, seeing the same concerned look on the other man’s face, and together they got closer. Carefully, slowly, as not to startle the man. Until they could sit by him.

“What are you watching?” Hanzo asked softly.

“... Cassie’s coming out video,” Johnny replied numbly, both Kuai Liang and Hanzo startled the man was speaking again.

“Coming out… I see,” Kuai Liang hummed.

“... I am sure she would be absolutely delighted if you called her. Or texted it,” Hanzo offered softly.

“... yeah,” Johnny sighed.

“Because she loves you. Quite dearly. Along with a number of people worried about you,” Kuai Liang added.

“... yeah,” Johnny muttered.

“We care about you. Because you’re a dear friend,” Hanzo offered.

“And truthfully, we have missed your usual being. The wit and charm and goofiness… We miss them,” Kuai Liang said, hesitating, and then reaching out to grab Johnny’s shoulder and squeeze softly. Johnny started from the touch, whipping his head around to _stare_ at Kuai Liang. And Kuai Liang swore he saw a spark of life in Johnny’s eyes again.

“... O-okay,” Johnny said, a noted bit of life in his voice.

Seeing that a gentle touch sparked something, Hanzo reached out and awkwardly patted Johnny’s knee. And the man almost looked like himself at that, the glimmer in his eyes and life and motion in his features. Kuai Liang had a very odd thought that, despite his personality, that Johnny was probably starved of touch.

“If you want, invite the kombat kids over. We can train and I’m sure that they are worried about you and would relish the opportunity to fret over you,” Kuai Liang said, squeezing Johnny’s shoulder once more before rising to stand.

“Okay.”

* * *

“Hello Johnny!” Sareena beamed as he pushed open the door to the guest room that was currently housing the former Netherrealm team.

Apparently with the Revenants gone, Sonya and the rest of the higher ups at Special Forces saw no point funding them and honestly, both Ashrah and Sareena had noted several times that they had wanted to leave the second that Special Forces did not need them there. Now Sareena and Ashrah were training with the Lin Kuei students to ready themselves for the coming fight, while Ashrah was still looking over Bi-Han’s recovery.

“Hi,” Johnny said before holding out the notebooks and package of pens. “Um, delivery.”

“Huh, was almost expecting ink, brushes and parchment,” Sareena said as she hopped up to grab them.

“Nah, um… apparently Kuai Liang mentioned something about what you needed and the kids brought it over when they showed up,” Johnny explained awkwardly. HIs tongue and jaw felt funny after going so long without talking much. And honestly, he wanted to shut up and just keep not talking.

“Wait… when did the Kombat Kids show up?” Sareena asked.

“Like fifteen minutes ago, don’t worry,” Johnny said.

“Oh good! I’ve missed them. I think I’ll put off note taking and go say hi. Wanna come-- er…”

Bi-Han currently shivering from where he was cuddled up against Saibot in probably was his attempt to keep warm. Saibot just looked impassively at Johnny and Sareena, or at least… Johnny thought that. Saibot refused to be seen without something covering the top half of their face and they seemed to be quite fond of a slightly tattered cloth wrapped around the top half of their head that covered their eyes.

“I am quite content,” Bi-Han muttered.

“Right. I uh… will also see about getting that one thing replaced,” Sareena said awkwardly before quickly dashing to go see her long seen friend.

“One thing?”

“Saibot absconded with my… binder,” Bi-Han muttered. “And then Frost snapped at me for having one that was a size too small and took it.”

“... Yeah, binders already aren’t healthy in the long term, so using one that’s too small is just gonna fuck you up more, Bi-Han,” Johnny said before pausing and thinking. “Wait… trans guy to trans guy, you haven’t had top surgery yet?”

“I did. Unfortunately, that… Ashrah’s healing did not discriminate in what it healed,” Bi-Han grumbled. “Not with how desiccated my body had become when I was Noob.”

“I’m so sorry. That must have been horrifying to find when you came back,” Johnny managed.

“It doesn’t bother me much. I only ever got the surgery in the first place so I could train topless without comments,” Bi-Han shrugged. “And now, with how… sickly I look and feel, I would prefer to keep my clothes on at this time. Maybe one day when I’ve healed enough I’ll get it again.”

“Tell you what, give me your measurements when you can and I’ll get you a few binders. And some of the good sports bras.”

“... My thanks,” Bi-Han said simply.

Feeling oddly… light, Johnny left the man to try and keep warm and drew all the bravery he had in himself to go face the kids.


	16. Clawing Fingers That Made It To Bone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Language, brief descriptions of cuts and badly broken bones, mentioned blood, mild body horror (Shinnok reconstructs a body), mentioned mind control
> 
> Me: idk if I can think of a reason for Sektor to come back  
> Also me: Okay but what if this

“Repeat the line-up thus far.”

“So far,” Sonya said, gesturing to the whiteboard she had set up in one of the rooms set up in the Sky Temple for planning the fight with the Titan. As the fighter nearer and nearer, the room grew more and more cluttered with hundreds of plans to fight the impossible foe. None of them sparked confidence. “Confirmed fighters are thus: Myself. Raiden. Fujin. Bo’ Rai Cho. Kai. Cassie. Jacqui. Takeda. Kenshi. Hanzo. Kuai Liang. Sareena. Ashrah. Frost.”

“Possible fighters. People who want to fight but may not be able to due to current issues regarding health both physical and mental,” Sonya continued, “Johnny, Jade, Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Kitana. Smoke, Kabal, Stryker, Nightwolf, Sindel, Bi-Han and Saibot.”

“Possible fighters baring other conditions such as realm safety or being unable to come to aid without someone getting pissy about them leaving their current geological position: Nitara, Skarlet, Kotal, Erron, Ferra and Torr, Rain, Shinnok, Khameleon--”

“Khameleon said she can come but she needs someone to grab her from Outworld first,” Sareena piped up from Sonya’s phone, set to a conference call with many of the possible fighters for the upcoming fight.

“Okay, one more for the confirmed fighters then… I think I can only add Sheeva to the third list after that then…” Sonya looked tired as she looked over the names. “Is that really all?”

“The former Revenants are eager to fight but I want to make sure that they are ready to do so. Twenty years of death… that is not something so easily shaken off,” Raiden grumbled.

“If that blasted Kuai Liang would allow me too--” Shinnok started.

“You are not bringing Sektor back. And you are not bringing back Cyrax that way,” Kuai Liang snapped from the speaker.

“Grandmaster Kuai Liang,” Sonya snapped. “This is crunch time. We have thirty days to get a fighting force that can take down a Titan. Morals are going to have to take a back seat where they can.”

“... I refuse to give Sektor’s head.”

“Fine. I doubt that asshole would fight for us anyway,” Sonya muttered. “First chance you get, get Cyrax’s cyborg head over here.”

“... Fine,” Kuai Liang muttered from the line.

“So, Cyrax for a maybe fighter… fuck me running…” Sonya muttered as she looked at the list. She scratched at her jaw, leaving pink marks in the wake of her shaking fingers, before turning to Raiden. “Anymore visions?”

“All the same, just more and more clear,” Raiden sighed heavily. “The force before the Titan. The fighters against a still unknown force and failing. A bruised and bloodied Johnny Cage facing a possessed Havik and taking the corrupted dagger. And then Johnny becoming corrupted. I’ve seen a few glimpses of his fighting the Titan but also…”

“Raiden, dear god man, do not keep anything from us. Not now.”

“... I’ve seen him approaching the retreating combatants with obvious ill harm. One vision is… is greatly disturbing…”

“What?” Sonya asked.

“A… a very clear vision… Johnny approaching Shinnok from behind… and pressing the dagger to his throat and saying… ‘Wanna relive some fond memories, Shiny?’”

Shinnok swallowed thickly, hand going to his throat where the scar from where his head had been severed still was. For a moment the scar pulsed red and angry before settling down into a healed over purple color that suited his pale and deathly skin tone.

“We need to pull Johnny, there’s--” Sonya started.

“Unfortunately, Johnny’s fighting powers are still one of the best strategies that we have,” Raiden countered. “These powers were meant to put him on par with, at the very least, the lesser gods. A trait that Cassandra holds but does not have his level of control and therefore, cannot be relied on. And if he can learn how to manifest that armor that let him absorb a lethal blow from Shinnok, he could prove one of our more durable fighters.”

“I don’t want him being corrupted, Raiden,” Sonya snapped at the thunder god, turning and jabbing a finger at his chest, not at all deterred by the difference in their power. “And your vision isn’t changing. A possessed Johnny trying to kill the rest of us isn’t something we can deal with if we only have as few fighters as we might have. Look at the damage that you caused when you were possessed. Johnny’s no god, but how many people would hesitate putting him down? How many people could he take advantage of that and put them down?”

Raiden ground his teeth as he and Sonya stared each other down.

“... I may have a solution, at least temporarily enough to last the fight,” Shinnok said, disappearing for a moment before returning an amulet. Like most of the things he made, the amulet had a certain gothic flair, though in place of gems and runes and other things, this one had a single slot for very small vial in its face instead. “I can infuse a very small but very powerful dosage of the purifying effects of the Jinsei into a single charge. We allow Mr. Cage to fight. If Raiden’s vision does come true, then we merely use this to cleanse his body. If nothing else, it will stun him enough to rip the dagger from him.”

Sonya mulled that over for a moment.

“We cannot afford to take a fighter out, Sonya,” Raiden added softly, an empathetic tone in his voice. While she no longer loved Johnny, Sonya still very much cared for him as a near and dear friend as well as a father to her child. Besides the obvious dangers of Johnny becoming possessed and turning his amplified powers against his friends and family… Sonya did not want to see Johnny suffer like that.

“... Johnny?” Sonya sighed softly.

“... Yeah, I’ll fight,” Johnny said over the line.

“... Alright. So we have another confirmed fighter,” Sonya sighed, before putting her face in her hands. “God this is all bullshit. And it still feels like it’s not gonna be enough.”

“We will have to make due, Sonya Blade,” Raiden muttered, looking as optimistic as Sonya sounded.

* * *

“Raiden… was that all you saw?”

“... No.”

“Dare I ask?”

A single image haunted Raiden’s mind. 

A limp, bloodied, bruised Johnny Cage. His skin pale, where it was not stained with his shed blood and the cuts from where it was drawn, with blood loss. One arm blackening and so oddly shaped that it was safe to assume that from shoulder blade to wrist that every bone was broken into a thousand pieces. Being held up by the Titan that was pinching the back of his shirt, holding him over her open maw with obvious intent on consuming him.

Despite it all… even with a nuclear option… 

“... No.”

* * *

“You kept Sektor’s head?” Hanzo asked as Kuai Liang carefully removed Cyrax’s cyberized head from the cushion that it had been sitting on in a shrine in one of the lower rooms of the Lin Kuei temple. It was obviously cared for, it safe to assume that Kuai Liang still mourned Cyrax’s unjust death even so many years later.

“I unfortunately found it when I went to see if there were any remains that I could identify. And I figured that I could keep people from trying the same as we are trying with Cyrax now,” Kuai Liang grumbled as he loving held the yellow shelled robotic head in his hands. “If nothing else… he deserved an uninterrupted death… I hate Sektor, I still do to this day. What he did to the Lin Kuei is unforgivable but… perhaps in death he has achieved some sort of peace.”

“... Where is it?”

“In a steel cased and lead lined box just underneath here,” Kuai Liang said, gesturing to the bottom of the shrine that Cyrax’s head had been on. “I was terrified of his being able to hack any technology if he were still alive somehow.”

“Ah, why you’re so hesitant around technology,” Hanzo noted.

“Sketor left his marks on me, that much is true,” Kuai Liang sighed, gently holding Cyrax’s head to his chest. “Come then, my treasure, we should quickly get to the Sky Temple and… get this over. If nothing else, I will be excited to see Cyrax after this is said and done… should we bring Johnny?”

“I think I saw him catching up with the kombat kids,” Hanzo said. “I say leave him be for the moment.”

“... Are… are you worried about him as I am?” Kuai Liang asked.

“... Yes.”

In short order they made it to the Sky Temple, finding Raiden and Nightwolf waiting for them.

“Greetings, grandmasters,” Raiden said, bowing.

“Hello,” Nightwolf grinned.

“Greetings you two,” Kuai Liang muttered.

“I am aware that this is a very… it is not a good situation,” Raiden tried as he lead them to Shinnok. “But for it is for Earthrealm’s defence. Otherwise we would let the dead rest as they should.”

“I am… aware,” Kuai Liang sighed.

“... How is Johnny?” Raiden ventured.

“He is still not doing much better,” Hanzo sighed deeply, rubbing his face tiredly. “He only recently started talking again. Once this is over, I will require a number of people to help me to convince him that he needs intensive therapy.”

“Of course. But the Titan comes first because if we don’t--”

There will not be an ‘after’. 

“There you are,” Shinnok said. Inside the room in the Sky Temple that had become the fallen Elder God’s workshop, he had set up a set of runes on the floor with different odd ingredients atop each one. In the middle, Shinnok was just finishing up drawing another rune. “Please place Cyrax here.”

Glowering at the Elder God, and only barely remembering the pact that everyone had made to not kill the man, Kuai Liang carefully placed Cyrax’s head on the rune and then stepped back to allow Shinnok to work his foul magics. Something that he was doing based on how the tattoos along his pale arms appeared and started to glow and then darken.

“First I shall use this to summon his soul back from the Netherrealm,” Shinnok started, waving his hands and weaving a thread of glimmering purple through the air.

Feeling no peace from knowing that Cyrax’s soul was apparently in the Netherrealm of all places, they watched as the glimmer fell across the runes, glowing minutely for a few seconds before dying again. For a moment there was nothing, not one damn thing, and then _something_ drifted up from the ground just underneath where Cyrax’s head was, taking the vague shape of a human from an indescribable wispy energy.

“Now I shall reconstruct a body using tissue from inside the head as a base,” Shinnok said, waving his hands again.

The robotic head cracked open, peeling away to reveal several intricate layers of technology, before finally parting to reveal a sickly hued human brain underneath. It ripped free from the technology that once bound it, rising into the wispy form until it was where it was supposed to be. 

And then. 

And then flesh started to form around it. Blood vessels forming like a spider forming a web, stemming from where the brain hovered and moving down the length of the too be formed body. When it reached where the heart was supposed to be in the chest, it simply formed a heart, bright red and healthy, one that began to gruesomely beat despite being nothing more than a forming circulatory system. When the blood was formed, next were the organs and bones, forming like the veins. The structure and mechanics of the body, forming and then squirming around as though they were alive yet, After the bones were the connecting fibers and the layers of muscular tissue and fats and such.

“I should ask,” Shinnok noted, very attuned to what he was doing. “But shall I add the years that Cyrax lost or shall I make him roughly the same age that he was when he was killed?”

Kuai Liang shuddered at the question as he watched Cyrax’s body being made by the hands of the fallen Elder God. It seemed so vile at a base level.

“... Give him his youth. After doing this to him and what happened to him, he’s earned the right to have those years,” Kuai Liang muttered.

“Very well.”

The skin and other outward features followed. Dark skin and his braids and his charming features. And then just as Kuai Liang feared, that skin darkened and glowing hellfire cracks appeared as his hair finished forming and before them was a…. Revenant.

“Now I shall release his soul.”

Shinnok made a quick motion with his arm and the hellfire disappeared from Cyrax’s body and what was left was a young, living Cyrax. Who breathed out and collapsed, Kuai Liang rushing to his side, crouching down to gently look him over.

“He will need time to recover,” Shinnok said, materializing a blanket to drape over Cyrax’s bare form. “But he is here and alive once again.”

Kuai Liang pulled Cyrax to the safety of his chest and felt a sort of peace settle over his heart.

* * *

“Bi-Han?”

They had gotten Cyrax settled in, the man still foggy and mostly unresponsive, giving him to the loving hands of Ashrah to look over. That meant that someone needed to watch Bi-Han so she could focus on Cyrax and Kuai Liang had taken to trailing after the man as he wandered around the Lin Kuei temple, examining the changes. 

Bi-Han had seemed to just be idling, perhaps thinking of something else, when the man seemed to start pointedly walking deeper within the temple. Kuai Liang had only idly wondered what he was doing until Saibot formed from Bi-Han’s shadow and started walking quickly after Bi-Han, and then he had worried. So now he was half jogging to keep up with Bi-Han’s steps as the man made it to the lower levels of the temple. When the man made it to the room that had once held Cyrax’s cybernetic head and still stashed Sektor’s, Kuai Liang was trying very hard to get his brother’s seemingly lost attention.

“Bi-Han, my brother, what is it?” Kuai Liang said as the man pushed into the room, looking around.

“Foggy… everything is… foggy…” Bi-Han muttered, looking around.

“Bi-Han?” Kuai Liang tried again.

“Everything is… was… still is foggy,” Bi-Han muttered, looking around the shrine before popping open the front of the now barren stand and pulling out the wrapped box that contained Sektor’s head. “Sometime before the tournament… Sektor gave me something. My memory started deteriorating after that… what was it…”

“Sektor? Brother, what are you doing, you’re worrying me,” Kuai Liang said, stopping by the man as Bi-Han unwrapped the box. He kneeled down as Bi-Han sat on the floor to just look at it.

“Yes he… something about it seemed off and then I carried it and I stopped thinking about it… I was watching myself move without my soul in my head…”

“Brother?”

“I think it got destroyed with my body in Netherrealm… what was it…” Bi-Han muttered.

“... Sektor gave you something and your memory started failing you and you felt as though you were… possessed?” Kuai Liang tried.

“Yes… thank you for not bringing him back,” Bi-Han muttered.

“... I did think of it. To bring him back just to make him look at all who suffered, what happened, and look at all that I reclaimed from the horror that he made,” Kuai Liang sighed softly. “But then what? What if he’s the same? What if he’s different?”

“Hmm…”

Kuai Liang could see the ruthless cunning practically physically manifest in Bi-Han’s eyes. His brother’s mind was mulling something over.

“Sektor gave me something and my actions and mind were no longer my own. I was sent up against my own demise and Quan Chi stole me away… how very strange how that works out, right, dear little brother?” Bi-Han pondered.

“Are you saying…”

“I wish to speak with the Elder God, the annoying fallen one,” Bi-Han said before holding up the box. “I believe Sektor was commanded by the One Being to cause my demise. But as I am no expert in that, he shall need to tell me what it is like to have the bastards fingers clawing through your thoughts to confirm my suspicions.”

Kuai Liang stared in horror at the box.

Was… was the fall of the Lin Kuei the doing of the One Being commanding Sektor…

Was Sektor innocent after all?


	17. The Fragility of Human Nature

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Mentioned mental health issues, mentioned prior mind control, mentioned suicidal thoughts/impulses
> 
> The human mind is the greatest enemy of all

The sound of voices was the first thing he registered.

Muffled, watery, like his ears were full of cotton. Or someone had their fingers in them. Where were… where were his fingers?

“--Process complete,” An older and assured voice suddenly said with perfect clarity.

“Did it work?” Another older voice said, this one deeper and having a bit more of a gravelly rasp.

“We shall have to see if he opens his eyes. The magic is not perfect. Not every soul wants to be resurrected and some will fight being forcibly sewn back in their bodies and simply… rip free,” The first older voice explained.

Where… where was he?

“His eyelids are flickering, suggesting that he is at least trying to gain consciousness?” A third voice said.

“Can I knock him out once we know?” A fourth voice said, raspier and gravelly than the rest.

“Sektor’s crimes against the Lin Kuei will be paid in full, later, Bi-Han.”

Sektor’s eyes flew open and he lurched up, sucking his first breath in over twenty years. Feeling the pull of alien muscles as his lungs inflated with fresh oxygen. His blood sang in his veins and his heart hammered in his chest wall, beating savage patterns against the inside of his rib cage.

“That bastard ruined my fucking life, Kuai Liang,” An older man with long, long grey streaked black hair snapped at another older man with grey streaked black hair. But… but the first one looked strange. There were cragilly black markings around his mouth that looked like someone had sliced neat lines along his lips. And an arch of the same markings around the midpoint of his nose. And his eyes… the whites were black.

“I’m not saying that you can’t be angry, brother,” The second older man snapped back. “Just not _now_.”

Thin and cold fingers grabbed Sektor’s jaw and forced him to look at the face on a different older man. This one had extremely thin and pale white skin pulled over hard angular features, like he was two steps away from being a skeleton. Glowing blue eyes looked him over, holding his jawline firm. This man pulled Sektor close, enough enough that the man could make out the rougher texture of the purple like shading around his eyes and the strange tear stain like marks were actual scars in the skin.

“He’s awake. His soul is cemented,” The third man said.

“Sektor, there is much to explain,” Yet another older man said as he stepped closer to the apparent stretcher that Sektor had been laid out on. Older, darker skin, white hair swept away from his face. Ancient glowing blue eyes looked to him and he felt bare and laid out before them. “But before we can get to all that, I have a very important question to ask you.”

There was silence in the room.

“What is the last thing you remember?”

* * *

“Okay so… The One Being corrupted Shinnok first, right? And then Shinnok corrupted other people and things at The One Being’s behest, right?” Kung Jin asked as he played chess with Liu Kang.

“As far as we can tell, based on what’s happening with Sektor,” Takeda said, playing referee. “Apparently at one point, the corrupted Shinnok approached Sektor and used magic to corrupt his mind. A slow degradation of his mind so that no one would notice until it was too late. And then apparently Sektor gave Bi-Han a corrupted item not too long before the Tournament and that warped Bi-Han’s mind.”

“Jesus,” Cassie grumbled from where she was watching her dad and Jacqui play video games off to the side. She had been watching him for a short bit, hating the dull shine to his eyes and how… not chatty he was.

“Anyone else we should know about? Shang Tsung? Mileena? Any of the Kahns?” Jacqui asked.

“Apparently Shinnok is looking into it now. Titan or no Titan, an all powerful being trying to rip the realm’s greatest fighters apart by forcibly making them evil? That’s something worth putting some time and effort into,” Takeda muttered. “But he thinks that there were others at one point. Or their could be sleeper agents. Or people like Sektor, whose minds were influenced and they could be falling apart now…”

With her dad’s head ducked down, Cassie panicked motioned to him. Takeda shook his head in a firm ‘no’.

“So… Sektor wasn’t evil?” Kung Jin asked.

“As long as I’ve known him, he’s at least been an asshole,” Tomáš said as he entered the room. Smoke trailed after him. “But… he did seem to get worse in his older years. Crueler, vicious, hating everyone and everything.”

“You guys didn’t think to maybe see… what’s up?” Kung Jin asked skeptically.

“Under the other Grandmasters, that was just how things were,” Tomáš sighed depressedly. “If you were ‘hardened’ in your older years, that meant that the training worked. That you had been honed into a what the Lin Kuei wanted. That you were the perfect tool for the job… I am glad to see that Kuai Liang abandoned all of those. That the Lin Kuei are family and honorable and strong warriors like they were meant to be.”

Kung Jin took Liu Kang’s king, much to the man’s bane as he sighed deeply.

“Well,” Kung Jin said as he got up so that Tomáš could take his place. “Does that mean he’ll fight for us?”

“Who knows? If he was corrupted he could end up being a lot like Shinnok and Bi-Han. Abrasive but a hell of a lot more… ‘agreeable’ compared to how they were before. Or he could be something else entirely. We won’t know until it’s time,” Takeda shrugged.

“... Hey… how many people have come back?” Kung Jin hummed towards Liu Kang.

“Eh?” Liu Kang asked as he started yet another game, this time with Tomáš.

“How many killed in the tournament that have come back?”

“Let’s see… the Revenants. Bi-Han. Cyrax and Sektor… everyone I think?”

“... Who are we missing…”

“Quan Chi, but his dead ass is staying dead,” Cassie noted off. “Shao but again, dead ass stay dead. Shang Tsung and once again ladies and germs, his dead ass is staying where it is. And Kintaro? Mom killed him on accident…”

“We’ve got the makings of an army.”

“One that we still aren’t sure can take out the enemy,” Cassie sighed as she went back to watching her dad.

* * *

Several hours later, Kuai Liang, Hanzo and Bi-Han returned to find that the group had shrunk to Frost, Liu Kang, Tomáš and Johnny. The kombat kids had gone home and maybe it was for the best, given the new information.

“What’s the verdict?” Tomáš asked.

“... Shinnok was able to confirm that Sektor’s mind had been corrupted by The One Being,” Kuai Liang sighed deeply. “He… the last thing that he could clearly remember was our initiation into the Lin Kuei…”

“Kuai Liang… that was when we were eighteen,” Tomáš muttered, paling.

“Exactly… Sektor was, as far as we can tell, not in control of his actions at the time of cyberizing the previous Lin Kuei,” Kuai Liang groaned, rubbing his tired face. “Perhaps less so when he was cyberized as well.”

“That’s… good?” Liu Kang asked, but not liking how troubled the current Lin Kuei looked. “That means he’s innocent, technically. Right?”

“... No, it’s not,” Bi-Han said with a grunt. “Sektor’s actions have already left their marks. There are dozens of good men, women and otherwise that are dead because of him. The Lin Kuei have been weakened by what he’s done. He got me killed and set me up to forcibly serve Quan Chi. Had the Lin Kuei not been weakened they would have been a force to make the gods tremble and now we’re nothing that even lesser gods like Raiden would register as a threat. Not to mention, when we told him…”

“He shut down. He has not spoken since,” Hanzo finished.

“Elder Gods above,” Liu Kang muttered.

“... What are we going to do now, Kuai Liang?” Tomáš asked softly.

“We train. We have a more pressing threat in the form of The First Seed of Revenge. We train and we get ourselves ready to fight her. Later we can worry about The One Being. It would do us nothing good to… linger where even the ghosts have left.”

There was a somber and bitter air in the room and no one was sure how to break it or if they could.

* * *

“How’s training going?”

“Insane. We don’t know how we’re supposed to fight the Titan so we’re trying to prepare for a bit of everything. Raiden comes by and shoots lighting at everyone to get them to dodge or deflect. Kenshi bullrushes everyone’s minds to try and build up a mental barrier against telepathic attacks. The kids went over to the Sky Temple the other day and Shinnok summoned a small army of the undead and just sent wave after wave at them to prepare them for crowds and endurance fights.”

Jax grunted, swirling his coffee around with a bit too much force.

“You okay, Jackie?” Sonya asked him.

“Yeah, just worried about everyone…” Jax muttered.

“I know. But I think we’re pretty good? I mean, we’ve got two gods and some of the strongest people in Earthrealm on the team, so it’s nothing if not a start. And if I can get Shinnok cleared, we’ve got an Elder God on our side,” Sonya hummed as she poured coffee from her coffee pot into a plain mug, joining Jax at her dining room table. “Besides, you’re retired and I promised you that I wouldn’t drag you into anymore bullshit unless I physically could not help it. Plus I heard about your latest doctor visit…”

“Just the extra heavy metal arms pulling a bit too hard on the artificial joints,” Jax clarified. “He just wanted me to start using the lighter civvie models more.”

“Still. Your body really can’t take kombat like you used to be able too. Mine can’t either, before you give me sass about that,” Sonya sighed. “But I don’t want you destroying both your shoulders and collarbone for one fight. V won’t let me hear the end of it.”

Jax swirled his coffee around a bit more.

“How’s Johnny?”

“Fuck,” Sonya groaned deeply, rubbing her face hard. “Not good.”

“Not shit. How about some details?” Jax quipped.

“He’s… he’s not talking. Not a lot, anyway. The Grandmasters tell me that he says maybe ten words a day… sometimes a week. He just doesn’t respond. He… stares with this dead look in his eyes,” Sonya groaned, rubbing her neck. “Fuck me, I should have listened to him.”

“What?”

“He said he didn’t want to keep an eye on Hanzo to see if we can prevent this apparent death match that Raiden saw happen between him and Kenshi. He got worse after I sent him out there…”

“... Sonya. You’ve been my friend for decades. I’ve known you since we were both rookies in SF… but damn do you make dumbass decisions when it comes to Johnny Cage,” Jax said flatly.

“... I know.”

“Do you? Because you keep making them.”

“Don’t scalp me, Jax,” Sonya groaned, dropping her head to her dining room table.

Jax just looked at Sonya laying them and felt like she really had learned nothing when it came to Johnny Cage after so long. Sonya was a smart, talented woman and generally had a good read on people. But there was just something about Johnny Cage that seemed to make her an impulsive idiot. Jax could feel his soul wince at some of the dumb shit she had done because Johnny was involved.

“Can you pull him out at least?” Jax asked.

“We’ve got three weeks to train for the Titan, Jack. If he can pick up a few things from Liu Kang and the Lin Kuei is a bit more important. But right after I am dragging his ass to therapy,” Sonya groaned.

“... What if it’s too late?” Jax asked.

“Eh?” Sonya asked, snapping up.

“You saw how some of the other SF veterans got. Too many fights, not enough support. No therapy, no drugs, no help on earth could pull them back from the abyss that became their souls. What if that’s Johnny?” Jax simply said.

“... Jack… don’t talk like that. He’s gonna be--”

“Sonya. Don’t. Just don’t. Johnny Cage is not fine right now and there is no guarantee that he will be fine after this giant ass fight either. Didn’t you say that Raiden is seeing him get possessed by one of those fucked up blood daggers?”

“Well, yeah?”

“If that happens, I guarantee that that poor man is gonna get fucked up in a way that probably ain’t fixable. You saw what it did to Kuai Liang. He still can’t look at daggers without looking green. He still can’t look at blood magic without going pale as a sheet.”

“... I don’t…”

“You don’t know what to do, just admit it Sonya.”

“... I don’t,” Sonya sighed.

“... Send him to the farm.”

“Huh?”

“After the fight, send Johnny to the farm and leave him there. And don’t let anyone come near. No visits, no nothing.”

“What the hell is farming going to do to help Johnny?” Sonya asked.

“It’s worked wonders for my soul, and I was trapped as an undead for years,” Jax shrugged. “And that man needs R&R. He could do without anyone pestering him. And I mean anyone, Sons.”

“... Yeah, I get that.”

Jax sipped his coffee.

* * *

_I’m such a terrible parent…_

_You took my role from me! He loves you more than me!_

_I can’t stop thinking about a bullet between the eyes…_

_What have I done… I’ve destroyed so much…_

Hollowed forms. Cracked clay floating atop light forms. Glowing eyes of bright yellow malicious light. The shape of their fighters.

_I’m scared of losing her. She’s all I have!_

_You hurt me! You tortured me!_

They approached like the Netherrealm worthy creatures that they were.

_I don’t want to die again, I just want to be with my husband._

And they lashed out with a fury.

“Raiden?”

Raiden roused himself from his vision and looked towards Shinnok’s worried face.

“I saw the enemy.”

“The Titan?”

“No the invisible force we were up against.”

“Well?”

“It’s us. We fight our secrets."


	18. Burning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Language, brief violence, mutual pining
> 
> The fight draws ever near and threads are fraying, slowly burning away

“Sound off.”

“Sub-Zero.”

“Smoke.”

“Cyrax.”

“Sektor.”

“Bi-han and Saibot.”

“The Lin Kuei are ready, Commander Blade.”

Kuai Liang, Smoke, Bi-Han, Saibot, Cyrax and Sektor stood together.

Kuai Liang was dressed up in all his gear. Mask and cowl to protect his head, his Lin Kuei armor for battle.

Smoke too was dressed for battle. Mask and cowl much like Kuai Liang’s to protect his face and head and his new set of gear provided by Kuai Liang for his smoke based attacks and his fighting style. 

Bi-Han had to get all new gear for fighting, considering how his… powers had changed. It seemed that his time as Noob had taken his cryomancy from him and left him with the strange shadow powers that Noob had. His gear was light and thin both for his shadow teleporting and because, even now, he was very thin and still underweight. 

Saibot also had to be made and given gear to use in battle. Because of their much larger and obviously sturider frame, as well as a strange compulsion to cover up as much as possible and not have their face seen, they were given much sturdier and thicker armor like gear. Which was probably best, considering that Saibot had already taken a protective role over Bi-Han, so there was a thought that the strange person would probably take hits to save Bi-Han.

Cyrax was dressed in new gear as well. Strangely enough, he did not want to don his usual yellow, though probably remembering his time as a yellow shelled cyborg. Instead he was dressed in customary Lin Kuei blue. A new belt for his bombs had been made, safer for him and easier to use, as well as armbands that could shoot his projectile sawblades.

Sektor, who had been a surprise to everyone, also had all new gear as well. He too shed his usual colors, forsaking the reds for Lin Kuei blue instead. He had to remake his flamethrower and miniature missile system from scratch, something of a technological marvel to anyone that realized that he had made it within three days time.

“Alright. This is just some really hard testing to see where you guys are, especially considering all the new fighters,” Sonya said over the PA system in the rather large bunker that this exercise was taking place.

“No faith?” Bi-Han asked as Saibot hovered near him.

“If it were not a Titan?” Sonya replied dryly back.

“Fair enough.”

“Now, in a moment, your opponent is going to come out. Your goal is to defend. Work as a team. The Titan is going to be a massive team effort, but we need to see how individual teams work out before we cobble everyone together. Remember. Teamwork is the goal. Not attacking, not damage, no showmanship. Teamwork… ready?”

“As we'll ever be, Commander,” Kuai Liang said, adjusting his arm guard quickly.

“Alright… Commence.”

The lights went out and for a moment, no one saw anything. When the lights came back on, walls had appeared in what looked like a maze like fashion.

“Alright… let’s stick together on this,” Kuai Liang said, summoning ice into his hands.

The lights went out again and when they came back on, a wall had formed in a space between the group and had effectively separated them. No one had time to let out a curse before Sektor shouted. Bi-Han, just grumbling, shadow teleported through the wall and found Sektor on the floor, arms folded over his chest. He stooped down by Sektor’s side and saw a bright yellow slash of something on his throat.

“What the fuck?” Bi-Han asked.

“I’m dead, I was told not to speak,” Sektor huffed.

“Wait--”

A hand covered his throat and something slid along his throat. Liquid dripped down and in a blind panic, reached up to touch the wetness and took it away and-- neon green paint?

“You’re dead down, you just sit here with Sektor,” Cassie whispered before the lights went out again. When they came on again, it was just Bi-Han and Sektor. The former of whom, crossed his arms across his chest and huffed about his predicament.

* * *

“That was… really bad guys…”

Bi-Han and Sektor were scrubbing paint off their throats. Smoke, who had ‘died’ of a thousand cuts, looked rather colorful in bright neon purple slashes across his exposed skin. Cyrax was scrubbing paint from the harmless paintball end arrows that Jin had gotten him with and Kuai Liang had the good grace to just forfeit when he realized it had come to him against the Kombat Kids.

“To be fair, everyone on this team but me has just recently come back from death, Commander,” Kuai Liang sighed.

“True.”

“I doubt everyone fared so well,” Bi-Han grumbled. “How did the White Lotus team do?”

“Fairly well, actually. Raiden and Fujin need to work on controlling how wide spread their powers go was the biggest thing we noticed,” Sonya said as she handed another package of wet wipes to Smoke.

“The kombat kids?”

“Damn good, but I’ve been on their asses for years on working better together.”

“... Special forces?”

“Not great but not bad either…”

“What happened?” Kuai Liang piped up.

“... Nothing, you worry about teamwork,” Sonya said cryptically.

“... Fine. Where is Johnny?”

“Johnny is getting pulled to work with the Special Forces, in his stead, we’re asking Ashrah and Sareena to look out for Grandmaster Hasashi and--”

Kuai Liang’s face soured.

“I know--”

“Do you?” Kuai Liang said, tone darkening.

Sonya balked at Kuai Liang, looking rather stunned that he was speaking at her with such a, dare she say, hostile tone. So was everyone else, based on how the Lin Kuei all stopped scrubbing paint off themselves to just stare at them. Kuai Liang who was, not quite glaring but also not staring neutrally, and Sonya that just stood there with her eyes widen and her lips parted in soft surprise.

“... I uh… um, how about Johnny comes back with us and Sareena goes to hang out with Kenshi?” Cyrax suggested.

“Actually, hasn’t the blind one asked about working with that green eyes sorcerer?” Bi-Han piped up. “Have Kenshi stay at the Sky Temple.”

“Even better, Raiden will try and remain neutral and he can surely stop Kenshi. No offense to the man’s powers, but… Raiden’s a god.”

“... Fine,” Sonya muttered, face hardening.

There was a certain bitter tenseness to the air.

* * *

“How’d you guys do?”

“Not great,” Cyrax sighed.

Johnny looked like he wanted to say something and then choose better, looking down at his phone.

“What happened?” Hanzo asked.

“Teamworks needs a great deal of work,” Kuai Liang sighed.

“Fair. You all have not been a team in a number of years,” Hanzo noted.

“True, but we have less than a month before we must fight this Titan. That is not a lot of time to learn teamwork,” Kuai Liang sighed again.

“As far as we know it will be a free for all once the fighting starts,” Bi-Han grumbled, shadow summoning his sickle to look in its polished surface to check his throat for more paint, running his hands over where he had scrubbed the skin pink before. “I think if we can work with staying out of everyone’s elses’ way then all will work out well enough.”

“We should still work on teamwork. The hope is that we survive, and I would greatly like to have you all fighting for the Lin Kuei afterwards…”

“Are you sure about that, little brother? Think of the predicaments that myself and Sektor are in,” Bi-Han said with dry bitterness.

“You both were not in control of your actions. And if you work with the Lin Kuei, you can redeem yourselves,” Kuai Liang tried.

“If you say so, little brother.”

* * *

“Johnny Cage.”

“Hey, Raiden.”

Raiden looked to Johnny and… lamented.

The once cocky and brash, open and eager and bright and lively Earthrealm hero was… not. Just not. He had been tempered by time, naturally. But recent event had dulled him. Once comparable to a summer sky, not he was a cloudy fall day and a storm was threatening to form at the edges of the already darkened skies. His eyes were dark and semi-hazed over with misery, the age lines of his face caught the shadows and he looked so much older than he was. Where was the whip like humor, snapping at a moment’s notice? Where was the life and joy and spirit that refused to be dulled or hampered?

Where was the true Johnny Cage?

“... I came to check on you,” Raiden said after a moment, quietly. He had a thousand things he wanted to say to Johnny. But… how could he say them… with what he knew… with what Johnny knew…

“I’m fine, Raiden,” Johnny said dully.

In the night light of the Lin Kuei temple, the silver in Johnny’s hair seemed all the more obvious. Raiden was never not aware of the passage of time, especially on his loved ones. But with people like Johnny, where Raiden knew that part of his actions had caused someone such strife and pain over their life it felt… it felt truly haunting in an indescribable way to watch time march on viciously on them while it did nothing to himself.

“No, you are not…. Johnny… please… if there is any way I can help, please tell me. Do not let this grim future come true,” Raiden pleaded. He would have begged at this point if he could. Anything then to lose Johnny to this. He had no more visions after seeing a few brief visions of Johnny, possessed, mercilessly slicing the Titan to bloody ribbons. And then the vision of the Titan about to consume Johnny. As far as his future sight was concerned, there was no future and that… was troubling. “If there is a way that Havik is alive, if he is indeed possessed by the Kamidogu… how can I convince you to not take it? That there is another way to win the fight then allowing yourself to become a martyr to corrupted blood magic?”

“... I don’t know,” Johnny said, shrugging tiredly.

“Anything? Anything at all? Please, Johnny… you are a dear friend to me. I consider you family at this point. I would do close to anything for you. Please… I do not want to lose you.”

Everything was quiet for a moment. Nothing but the sound of the winds blowing around the mountains that made up the base of the Lin Kuei. The cold bit deep, even into Raiden’s god flesh. But only Johnny’s warm breath could be seen.

“Seriously, I’m fine. I’m definitely going to take some long and hard R&R after this though, preferably away from everyone,” Johnny sighed after a moment.

“... You are lying to me.”

“What are you going to do about it,” Johnny snapped. A demand. An order. Johnny _wanted_ to see what Raiden would do. Was testing him, pushing him. And he… balked at that. Johnny did not test people. He did not intentionally rile people up, try to get them to lash out. If he ever did, it was unintentionally and he would talk his way out of it afterwards. This was… this was not Johnny.

Where was the true Johnny Cage.

“... Johnny…”

“Don’t you have Kitana, Jade, Sindel, Nightwolf and Kung Lao to train with?” Johnny snapped again, quickly walking past him.

“... Johnny…” Raiden said to the lonely night air.

* * *

“Hanzo, may I speak freely with you, for a moment?” Kuai Liang said. It was just Hanzo and him in his room for the night, ready to settle down.

“Yes, my treasure?” Hanzo answered back, brushing his hair before bed.

“I… I do not know how to word this, so please, try to withhold judgement or lashing out until I can find my way,” Kuai Liang started awkwardly, sitting by Hanzo. “But… do you… um… do you think of yourself as… ugh.”

“You are worse at this than me,” Hanzo chuckled.

“My apologies, dear one… I guess I shall say this as bluntly as possible, forgive me. But lately I have wondered if my worry over Johnny might mean that I regard him as more than a friend.”

Hanzo paused in his movements, but to Kuai Liang’s surprise and relief, the man had a rather lightly surprised look on his face. A small dark part of Kuai Liang’s mind was worried about Hanzo potentially getting upset. But thankfully the more rational part of his mind was right in that Hanzo seemed more puzzled/confused then anything.

“My apologies. Tomáš mentioned that he thought that you and I were romantically involved with him, based on how we have stopped calling him Cage and started calling him Johnny. And I began to ponder it as well… I suppose I was wondering if you perhaps have as well, since you too have started calling him Johnny? I… do not know.”

Hanzo did not say anything for a moment, setting aside his brush. And for a moment, Kuai Liang wondered if perhaps this would cause communication issues with them, despite how much they had strived to work on their communication given their past. How hard they had worked to make the relationship as ‘bump’ free as possible.

“... You too?” Hanzo asked quietly.

Kuai Liang balked. Maybe this would turn out fine.

“I… suppose, yes. He has been a good friend for many years, and in his older age his has matured and he is a good man with a good heart. Much like I saw in you after you started to become Hanzo after being Scorpion…”

“... I admit that I found his humor endearing after awhile, an ‘acquired’ taste. And you are right, he has a good heart and…”

“... But I still love you… and him? Does that mean we are polyamourous?”

Hanzo shrugged.

“How do we even approach him about this?”

“Well, right now is definitely not the right time. We all need to focus on the Titan fight or there will be no ‘after the Titan fight’,” Kuai Liang sighed. “And he seems stressed enough. Afterwards?”

“Yes. I think he should know. Who knows? Perhaps he even returns the feelings? He has been known to be rather flirtatious with us.”

Kuai Liang chuckled and Hanzo joined him.


	19. The Titan pt1: Failure to Feast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Mild Language
> 
> Prepare to engage

The fight with the Titan.

“My thanks for picking myself up from Outworld, I’ve been working with Reptile to see if we can find more of our kind,” Khameleon said, her green armor only visible though sometimes she would move her head and they would all see the faint outline of her hair. “So far no luck, though we have found interesting leads.”

“I’ve been working with Kotal Kahn… tentatively… to see if we can free my realm from the cluster fuck that is Outworld,” Nitara said. She had a set of rather gothic red, silver and darkened grey armor on that allowed her free usage of her wings. But also kept her look as THE vampire queen intact while still providing protection. “Whatever magic that colossal asshole Shao used is tricky though. But he’s willing to keep looking and trying so… there’s that.”

“After this fight, I’ll try and help you and Reptile,” Sareena said as she easily kept pace with Khameleon’s light and quick steps. “Ashrah doesn’t really need my help nowadays and I would like the chance to study some of the places I’m sure you two go.”

“Absolutely no one thinks its weird that we’re working with that asshat?” Kabal muttered to Stryker.

“Which one?” Stryker muttered back, making them both giggle.

“Said asshat can hear you,” Bi-Han snapped.

Stryker and Kabal giggled and walked faster to put more distance between Bi-Han and Saibot. The former of whom awkwardly patted Bi-Han’s shoulder when he grumbled.

“Everyone still here?!” Sonya yelled over the rather large group of people as they walked further and further into the cave system.

“A few are struggling to keep up the pace but still with us!” Fujin called.

“SOME OF US ARE OLD!” Bo Rai Cho huffed from the back of the group.

“Please focus,” Raiden called from his position at the very back of the group.

“We gotta let off steam, we’re about to fight a goddamn Titan!” Cassie yelled from the front.

The cave system was part of a long forgotten ruin in Earthrealm. Dry, dry earth made of pale brown rocks that seemed more like the dried up corpses of earth and rock than anything else. But it seemed fitting of a stage for their fight with the Titan. That they made their last stand here in the forgotten bones of a long dead civilization that even Raiden had trouble remembering. Here in the corpse of another, they would likely leave more death in its wake as they fought to once again protect Earthrealm.

“Do we have the amulet with the feast of secrets?” Shinnok called from Raiden’s side.

Johnny held up said amulet, the gem glowing and humming low with power. Packed with as many secrets as Earthrealm, Outworld, Orderrealm, any anyone else that could afford to hand over something.

“Toss it back here, it will be safer if Shinnok, Fujin or myself presented it,” Raiden called.

Johnny tossed it back, the amulet arching through the air and landing in Raiden’s waiting hands.

“Is everyone ready? Anyone want to say anything?” Sonya called.

“If I die again, I’m haunting anyone that lives,” Kung Lao called.

“Same!” Several other people yelled back.

The main chamber that the fight was going to happen in was about the size of two large football fields across and then top to bottom. Huge, but apparently the Titan herself would take up a good portion of it. And the earth, so ancient and dried and dead with age, seemed like it was begging for shed blood and thrown bodies to crumble it. How earth could beg for blood and violence was beyond any of them, but all of them felt it as they stood at the edge of the chamber leading out and simply waited.

“Weapons check!” Sonya yelled. “Ammo, charge, status. Check your weapons right now!”

There was the sound of clips being slid out of guns to be checked, weapons being twirled about to check weight, a few people turning blades and such this way and that. A few ran fingertips along razor edges to make sure that the cutting edges were still lethal. Thankfully, Sonya had made them all maintain and check their weapons beforehand, so no one really had anything to say besides Kitana stopping Jade to tie a hair tie around one end of the grip of her bo ‘for good luck’.

“Armor check!”

Everyone looked over their armor real quick, making sure everything was fitted right, adjusted properly, all that jazz. The only qualm came from Saibot tugging on Bi-Han’s loose undershirt and forcibly tucking in the excess material into his belt despite Bi-Han’s indignant yelp. Thankfully no one laughed. This was not a laughing time. There was no time to laugh at stupid shit. Not with death looming over them.

“Anyone want to say anything before the battle?”

“I LOVE YOU ALL, BUT I’M SERIOUS ABOUT HAUNTING ANY SURVIVORS IF I DIE AGAIN,” Kung Lao hollered.

“Way to go, brother,” Liu Kang snorted.

“If I may?” Raiden called, drawing all their attention to him.

“You… you all are Earthrealm and beyond’s finest warriors. There are no better warriors, no better people. I would gladly die fighting this foes at all of your sides and it would be the finest honor I could hope to achieve.”

Everyone seemed strangely touched despite the grim undertone.

“... Nah fuck that. DRINKS ARE ON ME WHEN WE KICK TITAN ASS!” Kabal yelled.

A small ring of laughter echoed through the small group at the peppier call of Kabal. And filled with vigor, they went over little fidgets to make sure that they were more than prepared for when the Titan showed up.

There was a nervous sort of energy in the air. Facing one’s potential doom had a habit of doing that, they all mused. And there was simply no helping it.

 _Raiden, do you see anything different?_ Shinnok telekinetically asked Raiden. Keeping his head down to look over his scythe to not alert anyone, least of all Kenshi, who seemed deep in mental conversation with Takeda.

Raiden paused in checking his staff. His mind filed through all his recent visions. Nothing seemed out of place, but for some reason, he had been less anxious about the battle to come. There was still lingering dread and anxiety, to be sure, he was no fool for not worrying about the upcoming battle. But for some reason, the dread of an abrupt end was no longer there. Had something changed? His visions told him no.

_No. But… we will succeed. We have changed the tides of fate many times over, my dearest former rival. And many times we have made the impossible, possible. We will win this fight. It may be long, it may be bloody, it may be difficult, but we shall succeed. I know it._

They would… would they not?

* * *

“The fight with that Titan is today,” Erron noted.

It was a rare rainy day in Outworld. 

Most everyone was outside to soak in the freshwater, gather it in pots to be stored, or quickly making sure that crops survived the sudden rain. Some were just outside to let the rain fall onto their skin and give a much needed break from the humid heat of Outworld. 

Kotal was outside, the rain making his body paint drip down in teal green droplets to the ground. But, much like anyone, he was enjoying the rain too much to care. Erron was standing underneath a bit of roofing of a nearby building.

“... I am aware,” Kotal rumbled.

“You sure we can’t help them, darlin’?” Erron asked him.

“... “ Kotal looked at the sky, eyes distant.

Erron frowned behind his mask but stood underneath the bit of roofing and watched the rain make Kotal’s body paint melt off of him and watched Outworld revel in the sudden downpour.

* * *

“The Titan fight is today.”

“I am aware, Havik,” Hotaru muttered, looking at the scrolls he had set across the desk in the room with Havik’s cell. When did he start hanging around here so much that he required a desk?

“... Why can’t Orderrealm do anything?”

A soft question. Genuine. Not an accusation. Hotaru almost wanted to be accused for it. The fact that Havik had been downright tolerable since his capture was… baffling in a truly frightening. The Havik that he had gotten used to all those years… was apparently not the actual Havik after all. Just this silly, goofy and chaotic but ultimately harmless little shit that was almost endearing.

“Earthream has it covered and they have two gods and an Elder god fighting for them,” Hotaru explained.

“What happens if that isn’t enough?”

Hotaru looked up and swore, that just for a second, that Havik’s lower face was stripped of flesh, leaving a bare grinning lower half of his face exposed. And black like ink was dripping down his face like blood.

But then it was gone. It was just Havik looking at him expectantly, worry and concern creasing his features.

“... I do not know,” Hotaru answered truthfully.

* * *

The Titan appearing was not what they expected.

To be honest, most everyone was expecting something grand. Fire, magic, lights, colors, something big and just… big. Because honestly everyone else that had been an evil asshat wanting to attack Earthrealm to destroy it. Shao Kahn had unleashed his armies before he showed up. Shinnok had unleashed hellfire and Netherealm on them.

The First Seed of Revenge just appeared.

Despite Raiden claiming that she would be massive… she looked like she was maybe five foot something. She floated about six inches off the ground but looked to be a whopping five six at most. Most of her body was covered in filthy rags that looked stained with usage and mold of some kind, stained a gritty and filthy green-brown color. The ragged mess of her hair looked more like solidified ink and hung from her head in ragged trails.

“The First Seed of Revenge?” Raiden called, motioning for everyone to stand back.

**_Tis I._ **

The vaguely feminine voice made all their skins crawl and break out into goosebumps. The sound… they were not meant to hear it. No human, god or Elder God ears were ever meant to hear this Titan’s voice.

“Allow me--” Shinnok started.

“No. Physically you’re still weak. If she swings, I’ll stand a greater chance to survive,” Raiden muttered back, before walking forward with the amulet in hand. “We have your feast of secrets. May it sate your appetite.”

Slowly and carefully, Raiden walked over to her, making no sudden moves or appearing at all threatening. All the way until he stood before her, seemingly confused when he had to look down to look at where the Titan’s face was hidden behind her disgusting hair. For such a seemingly powerful creature, she was short and honestly… more gross to look at than anything else.

Raiden handed the amulet over when she lifted a hand with blackened skin up to take it and then took several steps back as she used her free hand to pop the glowing white gem out of the placing. For a moment, the glow caught the glint of a gaping maw with shark teeth through the ragged clumps of her hair. And then the gem was getting pushed through the hair and supposedly disappeared into her mouth to be consumed.

And they waited as she stood there, stock still. Not a sound to be had, no movement to track. No signs if she were happy or not.

And then.

The First Seed of Revenge was gone. And before anyone could comprehend that. She was back and taking up half of the cavern, her suddenly massive body crushed into one half and suddenly the sound of her massive lungs filling up the once deathly quiet chamber.

“Raiden!”

Raiden teleported back as The First Seed of Revenge made a sound as though to be sick, massive body heaving with the effort, shark teeth almost seen between the strands of her rotted hair. They all drew their weapons as she spat something out and--

“Is that…”

What looked like a poor molding cast of Raiden, cracked and missing pieces, enough so that a glowing core could be seen, dropped to the ground underneath her maw. When the copy stood, its eyes glowed with the same light as its center. Copies of Kitana, Sub-Zero and Kabal followed afterwards. And more after that.

They had failed.

They had to fight a Titan.


End file.
